A Marauder's Tale
by EilayAdnayVolieay
Summary: A Prophecy... a mystery, surrounded by intrigue that would bring them together at all costs. Hidden Rooms, betrayal, secrets, tragedy, and what tale would be complete without a hint of... love? Read and Review please. Recontinued.
1. The Prophecy

**A/N:** Ok I realize that I should work on my other stories, but I really wanted to do this one and couldn't help it. So, here is my new story, A Marauders Tale!

**Disclaimer:** Sadly it is my most unfortunate duty to say here that I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I part of any Harry Potter company, for if I was I would not be wasting this time writing a fanfiction, I would be using this time productively to finish the books . . . all belongs to JK Rowling, Warner Bros and so on . . .

**Full Summary:** If you were told that hundreds of years before you were born, you're future was foretold in a prophecy, how would you take it? Probably no better then James Potter, Lily Evans, Sirius Black, Megan Winters, Peter Pettigrew (A/N: hisses from readers are heard at evil person lol!) Remus Lupin and Ali Lloyd took it when they found out. Lily Evans and her two best friends Megan and Ali always hated the Marauders... the Marauders who were arrogant and cocky, who pulled pranks on poor helpless victims... Lily liked to think of her and her friends as the smarter, yet decent people of Hogwarts... highly intelligent, but unlike the 'infamous' Marauders (infamous to Lily, Megan and Ali, but... famous to the rest of the female population) they were NOT self-centered. The Marauders always... you could say, DISLIKED Lily and her friends... after all nobody likes people who rat them out when they pull pranks, and NOBODY likes people who don't like you... so when they hear about a prophecy involving Hogwarts, they decide to try and figure out what it said exactly, and what it meant... but they find out more then they bargained for... slowly, the mystery and intrigue surrounding it all will bring them together... only they can solve the mystery, only they can fulfil the prophecy as well as their own desires...

**A Marauder's Tale**

_By: EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter One: The Prophecy

"The sky was dark and clouded over the night that a prophecy was foretold... a prophecy that would forever change history, forever change the lives of the people the prophecy surrounded..." Professor Binns said, continuing on and on and on with his lecture. Lily Evans was probably the only student paying attention to their History of Magic lesson, taking notes on every word that the professor said. She looked around, shocked that nobody else was taking notes or even at least paying attention.

The classroom was quite a sight. Some students were trying to look like they were paying attention, but it was still obvious that they weren't. Others didn't even bother to pretend... some were doodling on their notebooks, others were passing notes to their friends, enchanting them to fly over to whoever it was for. And then, there were the TOTAL slackers, who were asleep, snoring and drooling. But despite his less then interested students, Professor Binns continued with his lecture about the prophecy of a "legend to be born" since he was used to students not listening to what he had to say. When it came to his exams, students would do last minute studying skim-reading every book they could find on what they THOUGHT would be on the test, missing the actual content entirely and barely passing.

"And so, class, the prophecy was heard by one and one wizard only... but his death was later foretold, so he wrote down the prophecy... this wizard was none other then Godric Gryffindor, one of the four founders of this school... he died, as was foretold, but after he and the others founded Hogwarts, after Salazar Slytherin left the school... it was assumed that he hid the prophecy, somewhere here, in Hogwarts... now whether or not that is true is unknown. It is the same that people believed for many years that the Chamber of Secrets did not exist, and perhaps that is true, but several years ago it was opened... the person believed to have opened it was expelled, but really... we never actually had a witness of the chamber being opened, nobody has found it still... and even though a girl WAS killed, it could have been nothing at all... just a student gone bad... so don't be getting any ideas about this prophecy," Professor Binns continued, as if any student other then Lily paying attention.

"Just a random question, to test if you have paid attention well in one of my classes a few weeks ago, what was the Golden Snitch originally?" Professor Binns asked. James Potter finally lifted his head up from his doodling, and saw Lily put her hand up. He sighed... he knew the answer of course, after all Quidditch was his LIFE! Did that girl have an answer for EVERYTHING? But... James had to admit, she was kind of cute... in her own, stubborn way... and if you liked girls that had way to red of hair, and puke green eyes... he heard Sirius behind him snickering, and followed his gaze to... _Oh god! I forgot that Sirius sat behind me today... and he's looking at..." _James looked down and saw that he had forgotten to hide his doodles... great... turning around again, James saw Sirius smirking at him, then Sirius nodded towards Lily.

"Yes, Miss Evans?" Professor Binns asked tonelessly. Lily sat up straight, and cleared her throat before replying.

"Well, before the Golden Snitch was created, Quidditch players used a bird that was then overpopulated, now almost extinct, the Golden Snidget. The game of Quidditch developed over the years and at first they didn't have a seeker at all, and it was during that time that hunters were hunting Golden Snidgets... very fast and near impossible to see... sounds very much like the Snitch, doesn't it? That's because after it was declared that it was cruelty to animals using the Snidgets who were later put in a wildlife reserve type thing, the Golden Snitch was invented to be near identical to the Snidget." As usual, Lily Evans sounded as though she had swallowed a textbook. James looked at her, his mouth hanging down... what did SHE know about Quidditch? She never came to any of the matches, ever, she never showed any interest in it when any of her friends or the people around her started to talk about it... she groaned and walked away. Yet, she knew about the HISTORY of it... then again, she read everything... but even still... James looked down at his notebook and quickly shut it, hiding his doodling of Lily's name.

"Correct, Miss Evans. Now that I seem to have gotten your attention let us go back to the—" just as Professor Binns was about to go on about what homework they would have, it was time for their next class. They all tried to rush out as quickly as possible before Professor Binns would remember to assign homework but had no such luck.

"And for homework this weekend class, I would like a 3 foot essay on the prophecy I just told you about, and I expect it on my desk Monday morning, NO excuses Mr Potter, Mr Black, alright then?" Professor Binns turned around and went about his usual business, waiting for his next class to enter. James, Sirius, Peter and Remus left the classroom together.

Meanwhile, Lily, Megan and Ali were walking quickly to their Transfiguration class. Lily sighed, knowing that they were supposed to be learning a new spell, very complex... and although Lily was thought to probably be the smartest witch in her year, she was horrible at Transfiguration. Give her a Charms spell any day, but Transfiguration...

James walked right past Lily without even noticing she was there, but bumping right into her, causing her to get very irritated with him. He could be so ARROGANT and cocky sometimes that it just made her want to... well, it wouldn't be Lily-like to say, but something NOT good. He turned around, and grinned in a way that HE thought was apologetic, but SHE thought was more of a look of accomplishment, achievement... putting her head up high, she speed-walked past him and sat into her desk. Ali and Megan exchanged glances before following her suit.

_Huh... I wonder what got into HER? I mean I know I knocked into her but COME ON! Its not like I shoved her into anyone, other then that loser Derek... well I guess if I were here I wouldn't want to be shoved into a loser either... psht, the only reason I 'like' her as Remus said I must is because she's easy on the eyes and hates my guts...' _James smirked to himself, and sat down behind Lily. _Perfect... right behind Evans... this should be QUITE interesting... _Lily turned around for a few brief seconds and glared James' way. She had an idea that he was up to something, she just couldn't be sure WHAT exactly...

Professor McGonnagal entered the classroom, late for a change, and quickly told the students that her lateness was merely caused by a horrible fight in the halls. Brushing back a stray strand of hair, she continued on with the lesson.

"Today, class, we will be learning a more difficult spell then previous ones we have learned. We will ACTUALLY be learning more human transfiguration... not quite complete transfiguration, that is still a bit too advanced for you at the moment, but a more simple spell... to change one's clothes... to something different. This spell is mostly used when going undercover as Aurors, or other dangerous jobs available... but still is part of the curriculum. There ARE, however, some slight, er... side affects... highly unlikely to happen, but... well, just... make sure to be prepared for the, ahem, worst. Also, because this is a more difficult spell, we'll work on it all this week to fully MASTER, or at least TRY to master, the spell... with a partner." McGonnagal replied. As soon as she said the word partner, everybody looked around and started pointing and whispering, choosing their partners. It was then that McGonnagal decided to burst their bubble.

"Partners which **I** will be choosing," Groans were heard all through the classroom. It didn't really bother Lily much. Professor McGonnagal began calling out names pairing people up. _I can't do Transfiguration well anyways,_ Lily thought. _So I don't really care about partners, as long as I'm not paired with..._

"Evans and Potter!"

A/N: Ah, a cliffhanger... how I am famous for these... you will learn to love my stories, and hate them at the same time... hate as in hate the cliffies. Anyways, I should PROBABLY work on updating my other stories now that this idea is put down on paper so to speak, so... hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to review and let me know what you think! Flames welcome but I'd appreciate if you tried to be constructive.

EDITED: Some have mentioned that some characters seem ooc (out of character)... just to clear that up, its meant to be that way because it's a fanFICTION, not the real thing. Since JK will likely never write a prequel, us Marauder Time lovers will be forced to resort to Fanfictions.


	2. Stuck With You

**A/N:** Ok I was going to do all those extra features that were in the last chapter, but nobody answered anything plus I'm not bored right now, and... ahem... can't remember what I said anyways. Has it been THAT long since I updated? My sincerest apologies. Anyway, here's the latest chapter of a Marauder's Tale, enjoy.

**Disclaimer:** Yet again it is my sad duty to inform you I do NOT own Harry Potter... otherwise I would already know what happens in HBP (Half Blood Prince) and would not be anxiously awaiting its release to stores everywhere.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_By: EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Two: Stuck with You

"WHAT?" Lily shouted loudly. She turned her head quickly and glared at James, then turned back to McGonnagol.

" You heard me correct, Ms. Evans. You are a very bright student, and very willing to learn, but Transfiguration is NOT one of your stronger points. Potter, on the other hand, is a very good transfiguration student, and you could use a bit of... help... from your fellow student. Lloyd and Lupin! Black and..."

"But... but... Professor, you can't POSSIBLY be serious! You can't pair me up with that... that... as— "

"Ms Evans if you cannot control what you say I will have no other choice but to give you a detention. Now really, would you complain about your partner to your boss, or would you sit and SHUT UP? Now, anymore complaints from ANYONE and you will have a 10 foot long essay to give me about why you must not complain of who you're paired up with... understood? BLACK AND WINTERS!" McGonnagol continued on down the list, and Lily, still fuming, took her seat again, and didn't say one word. James leaned forward in his seat, and whispered into Lily's ear,

"Calm down tiger... I'm not going anywhere." Lily turned around and was about to smack James right in the face, but felt Professor McGonnagol's eyes on her, and restrained herself. This was not going to be fun at all...

"Look, Tiger, you're doing it all wrong! Your supposed to wave your wand over yourself like THIS... not like THAT," James said, frustrated, while showing her the right and wrong way to do the spell.

' _Oh please let this class be over soon... I can't stand another MOMENT of this complete torture... and if he calls me Tiger one more time I swear to god I'll...' _Lily stopped her thoughts short, and put on a fake, sweet smile.

"I'm sorry, Potter. How was I doing that spell again?" _Payback time Potter... lets find out what those side affects McGonnagol told us about were, shall we? _James, acting dumb and naive, unaware of Lily's intentions, showed her how she was doing the incantation.

"Well, you said _Scorpiosis _wrong, for starters. You said _SCORPSIS_ and waved your wand like..." There was a loud cracking sound, and James was turned into a large...

"A BANANA, honestly Jamsie, how did you manage to turn yourself into a BANANA? You should have seen the triumphant look on Evan's face when she saw you standing there like a bloody buffoon, trying to figure out why everyone else was laughing hysterically at you. I mean it was just..." Sirius started to say, but stopped and burst out laughing. James, with a dirty look on his face, flushed slightly, then finished Sirius' sentence.

"BLOODY BRILLIANT, I know, I know you've only told me about fifty times since class ended. LET IT GO, Padfoot." James went ahead of the gang, saying briefly that he was going to get started on his essay for Binns, and left. Boy, was it good to be away from the snickering of his friends. They meant well, but could still wear on a persons nerves.

'_What's with everyone crowding around that board? I wonder what they're looking at...' _James thought to himself. He walked over to where the crowd was, and the people gathered around it moved out of his way. He smirked. One of the advantages of being a marauder was that everyone practically worshiped the ground he walked on. It came in handy every now and then.

" ' Need help in one of your classes? Can't seem to pay attention to your teacher, or master a new and difficult spell? Then you need the tutor-a-tutor program! You get a tutor in exchange for a tutor!' " James read aloud. Hmm... interesting.

Back at the library, Lily was working on her essay for Professor BinnsShe wanted to get perfect on this essay, and, since nobody else listened to a word the professor had said, she was likely to get the highest mark.

_People believed for many years that the prophecy was not a prophecy, but actually a legend invented to keep young witches and wizards preoccupied during the hard and dark times of evil wizards trying to take over. The main reason that rumor was started was because people were afraid of the prophecy, of what it meant. People are always afraid of what they don't know or understand. Even witches and wizards believed it was a mere legend, and whether that is true or not remains to be seen today, as the prophecy if it is as it seems has yet to be fulfilled._

" If I could find out more about this prophecy, I could get extra marks! But I have no idea where I could find out about it..." Lily muttered to herself. Suddenly, she heard a familiar, annoying voice enter the library. _Oh no... not..._

"Look who it is, the tiger herself! You probably think you're really funny, making me turn myself into a talking banana... unsuccessfully. AND making me look like an idiot." James replied. Lily took a deep breath before putting on another of her fake smiles.

"Call me a tiger again Potter, and I'll make sure you never sit on a broomstick comfortably again. As for making you look like an idiot, I don't have to lift a finger, you pretty much do that on your own." James glared at her, but sat down next to her anyways. _Great... just what I wanted, to be near that jerk even more then I have to! _James leaned over, close to her ear.

"You don't really mean that, do you, Lily? I know you would never intentionally hurt me... your too nice of a person to do that. I'm sorry that I've bothered you over the years... forgive me?" James whispered softly. For a moment, Lily didn't say anything. She was frozen to her seat, hoping James would get far, FAR away from her soon. Then, she heard James mutter an incantation, and saw nothing.

"Oh shit..." James cursed. He must have said the wrong incantation. He had succeeded in getting revenge on Lily... but he had no idea what he did to her.

_Great, she'll kill me for this but... there's nobody else around._ James, deciding there was no alternative, sighed, and picked Lily up. Oh god would she let him have it when she found out he even looked at her!

"_Professor, I don't get it. Why did you have to talk to US about that prophecy Bin– I mean, Professor Binns, told us?" a girl, who looked strangely familiar, asked. Professor Dumbledore lowered his gaze and looked at them all through his half moon spectacles._

"_Because the prophecy has yet to be fulfilled... and only those whom the prophecy involves can fulfill it."_ _Dumbledore continued. Suddenly, there was a dead silence, and then the sound of music... the sight of a small town that nobody knew existed came, and went... Hogwarts, in the distance, was shown under a dark storm cloud... what dangers lied ahead were unknown._

Lily woke up, startled. _What was..._

"So you finally woke up, huh?" a deep, yet soothing voice, called out from the shadows. Lily looked around, but saw only darkness. Her head began to spin, so she leaned back into the bed. Bed... the hospital wing! She had past out because... _POTTER! That FOUL loathsome idiot! He did some spell... if I EVER see him I'll force an apology out of him and..._

"Yeah... but... why am I in the hospital wing?" Lily asked. She heard rustling, and thought she saw a movement in the shadows, but her head was still spinning and she couldn't be sure.

"I sort of... well... I tried getting you back for, you know, making me turn myself into a, um... banana... but I said the wrong incantation. I was just trying to do the charm that turns your hair a different colour but... it didn't work out." POTTER! It was HIM in the shadows.

"YOU? STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID TO ME, BUT SO HELP ME WHEN MY HEAD STOPS SPINNING I SWEAR I'LL KILL YOU! YOU JUST CAN'T..." Lily stopped shouting, because James, acting on impulse to shut her up, kissed her. Lily, unsure of what was happening, didn't say anything. Then...

SMACK! "What the hell did you do that for?" James asked, rubbing his face. Lily, face beet red, hand sore, sat up in her bed.

"YOU ARE THE MOST CONCEITED SELF-CENTERED SONOFA... DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH I **_HATE_** YOU? DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA AT ALL? DO ME A FAVOR, JAMES POTTER, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!"

"She yelled at you? And you're SURPRISED? For gods sake, James, you kissed her knowing she hates your guts! Do you have ANY idea how completely STUPID that was?" Remus cried out. James, still looking dazed even though the whole thing had happened several hours ago, nodded. Sirius, who had been sitting idly by, completely silent, decided to join the conversation.

"Well, you have to give Prongsie credit... anyone who kisses a chick who hates you THAT much has got sheer guts. SO... was she any good?" James glared at Sirius, but grinned and said nothing.

Meanwhile, Lily was furiously brushing her teeth, trying to get the taste of that jerk out of her mouth. It wasn't working, but she had to try. Ali and Megan walked in and saw the toothpaste foam and blood coming out of Lily's mouth.

"Lils, your brushing too hard... your gums are bleeding majorly bad!" Ali replied, worried. She rushed over to the sink that Lily was standing over. Lily, ignoring Ali's protests, continued brushing her teeth even harder. It just WASN'T working!

" Come on Lily, we're going to head out for Hogsmeade soon! I admit Potter acted like a total jerk, very obnoxious but its over now, just be grateful he didn't try to use ton..."

"DONEVENSAIT! NOTTINGYOUSAWILLERAHSTATHORRIBUHMOMUNFRUMMYMEMORYSODONEVENBOTHER!" Lily shouted, toothpaste spilling out of her mouth.

"What?" Megan asked. Not one word that had come out of Lily's mouth had made a bit of sense. Lily rinsed her mouth and shouted again,

"DON'T EVEN SAY IT! NOTHING YOU SAY WILL ERASE THAT HORRIBLE MOMENT FROM MY MEMORY, SO DON'T EVEN BOTHER!"

"Lily you can't just stand over that sink all day brushing your teeth!" Ali cried out. She was the more sensitive, concerned one of the group, and didn't like seeing Lily freak out.

"THE HELL I CAN'T! JUST WATCH ME!" Lily shouted again. Giving up, Ali and Megan threw their arms up in defeat, and left. What was the sense in trying to make her see that she was overreacting? She was way beyond seeing, and all she had left to do was use up all the toothpaste and mouthwash she could find... after that, if the taste wasn't gone, the whole school would have hell to pay.

Leaning back in his chair, James looked around Three Broomsticks at the young, very promising, witches that Hogwarts had to offer. There were so many, and most were very attractive, yet James could not focus on any of them. He was still thinking about the kiss he and Lily had shared, however briefly and even though he knew she hated every minute of it. Maybe Remus was right... maybe he DID like her. But if that was the case, why had he always denied it? Why did he always pull pranks on her and her friends? None of it made sense.

"Hun, have your friends not come yet to meet you here? Aww you poor thing. Here's the butterbeer you ordered, but look, I've gotta jet, someone else is takin' over the pub t'day, so you stay outta trouble, ok? I don't wanna hear NOTHIN about you gettin' detention, 'cuz if I do, you'll be hearin' from me." Madame Rosmerta replied, placing James' butterbeer down on the table. She had always been nice to him, even though his best friend continuously hit on her. Perhaps it was because his parents had always been so nice to her when she was growing up and their paths crossed, or maybe it was because she like so many others was just drawn to him. As she walked out of the pub, there was a catcall that came from none other then Sirius Black.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, mate, but I had a few, ahem, things to take care of. Where's Remmy and Petey?" Sirius asked. James rolled his eyes at the nicknames Sirius had come up with. Could it GET any more sad?

"I thought they were with you, actually. So I'm assuming that they aren't?" James replied, getting comfortable again. Sirius went up to the guy at the counter of Three Broomsticks, and ordered himself a butterbeer. Just then, Megan Winters and Ali Lloyd walked in. Sirius, practically drooling over Megan, didn't see Ali and...

"YOU JERK! YOU JUST SPILT THAT DISGUSTING EXCUSE OF A DRINK ON ALI!" Megan shouted. She was not a person to be crossed, especially on her bad days. James, snickering to himself, was eventually cornered.

"AND **YOU** STAY AWAY FROM LILY! SHE'S STILL TRYING TO GET RID OF THE TASTE OF YOU AFTER YOU THREW YOURSELF AT HER! YOU MARAUDERS DISGUST ME! YOU THINK YOU'RE ALL THAT, BUT YOU'RE NOT!" Megan screamed. Grabbing Ali's arm, she turned on her heels and marched out. Remus was walking in with a badly beat up Peter, and opened his mouth to greet Ali and Megan, but received a shove and a glare.

"Well... that went well."

**A/N:** Well, what did you think? Was it good, was it bad, awesome or horrible? SOOO sorry that it has been forever since I updated, I could spend hours typing down excuses but I'll spare the details and just tell you that I was busy.

Thank you to all who reviewed. Sorry that this chapter I can't get around to answering your reviews, I'll make sure to answer your reviews in the third chapter, ok? Hope you enjoyed, and don't forget to review! Its not that hard, just click the little button in the bottom left corner!


	3. Mystery Guest

**A/N:** Wow, I thought that the last chapter was a little lacking, but when I read it over again to make sure I remembered exactly what happened, it wasn't all that bad... whattaya know. PLEASE review if you read this, I want to know what you think about this story, if it's good or not. As you can tell from the last chapter, Lily is starting to sort of have visions about the Prophecy although she doesn't realize that. I don't think I said what year this all took place in, but I'll just not mention that for this chapter and check later . . . kk? Thankya, cookies for everybody!

**Disclaimer:** Dudes, I've said it before, and I'll say it again, I do NOT OWN HARRY POTTER! JKR does, which is why I am pulling out my hair awaiting the seventh book now (I nearly _DIED_, I saw JK on an interview from after the fourth book came out and in a notebook she had the final chapter of Book seven, and she said it goes on to say what whoever survives went on to do after school or basically after Voldy gets finished... I was like looking at the notebook just thinking that if I concentrated hard enough it would open, LOL!)

Also, thanks to The Vagabond (whom has asked to remain... secret... MWAUHAHAHAHA!) For the name "Dooper Gooper"... I'm not one for making up words, and thus... I asked someone else : ) It's... odd, but the best we came up with. So thanks to the "Blood Lusting Vagabond". (Just remembered full name now LOL!)

**A Marauders Tale**

_By: EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Three: Mystery Guest

Several weeks past, and both Remus and Ali were trying not to get in the middle of their friend's feud. Lily kept going on continuously about how disgustingly similar to a sewer rat James was, and Megan would tell anyone who would listen that Sirius' supposed good looks— she would gag every time she said that— was a result of yearly plastic surgery, every summer when no one from school would ever see him constantly. She would also tell anyone who was willing to listen that Sirius' ancestors were actually sewer rats, and that Sirius had been born in the sewers as well... of course, all she succeeded in doing was making all of his fans want him more and cry out how they were going to make sure he had the greatest memories for the holidays in the winter. And the plastic surgery comment only made a few girls shout out that they had nose jobs, and swooning at how they had SOMETHING in common with him. Megan of course groaned and walked away silently with her head in the air, while Ali tried her hardest not to laugh. Every time she so much as smiled, Megan would throw such a piercing glare at her that she would suddenly forget what had been so funny and become very interested in her broken finger nail.

During those two weeks, Lily had to put up with constantly being paired up with James. Of course, she hated every minute of it, but she dealt with it because she knew Professor McGonnagol would always partner her up with James until she started to either improve or rapidly begin failing Transfiguration. Lily would knock herself into a coma if she failed any class, no matter what the circumstances, so she focussed on getting better then she had ever been in Transfiguration. As much as she hated to admit it, and she never would to anybody but herself in her own head, having James as a partner was like having her very own private tutor in her worst class, and despite the fact that it was James Potter and not some actual HUMAN (A/N: To Lil's anyway... lol!), she was taking advantage of every second, while still making it look like she was suffering some horrible tragedy every time she stepped into Transfiguration.

Sirius and Megan weren't much better off. Sirius, for some reason, was highly interested in doing whatever he could possibly do to annoy Megan, whether it was humming or whistling the most annoying tune he could screech out, doing every possible thing with his incantation wrong (which eventually turned bad, and he was rushed to the hospital wing because he had grown an extra head that wouldn't shut up and kept biting people). Megan would simply glare at him, and do whatever she could to make sure she did everything right so that the class would be that much closer to being done learning their newest spell. Some people still hadn't mastered it, although the few that did were allowed to move onto spells they weren't supposed to learn until later on in the year. She hoped that everyone else would finish soon, and then her being paired up with Sirius would be over.

Sirius looked around the room at everyone in the class. He saw Lily and James and smirked... _Why, I think Prongsie over there is a bit smitten with Evans... she doesn't look too happy right now though..._ _me thinks I have a 'prank'... _Sirius looked around to make sure nobody was watching. No such luck... his fan club was sitting in the back of the class absolutely DROOLING over him. He smiled at them, and they screamed and ran out of the room. Perfect... there was no one else watching him, no one else stopping him from continuing with his 'brilliant' plan... of course it HAD to be brilliant, HE thought of it.

Unknown to him, Megan kept occasionally glancing at him, watching him, waiting for him to try to do something stupid. She was waiting for an excuse to get as far away from him as she possibly could, and yet she was getting nowhere. The worst he did was smile at his pathetic 'groupies', which made her want to throw up. She was happy to see them run out of the room, as their disgusting perfume had been drowning her so much that she was actually having trouble with the spell. It wasn't like Sirius to not get into trouble during class... he always had a trick or two up his sleeve, but for the past week he hadn't pulled a single prank... _That Jerk probably cries himself to sleep when he can't think of some cruel prank to pull. He is SO pathetic, and yet ninety percent of the females at this school... ok, ninety NINE percent, but there's no need for specifics... actually like him. I am so glad that I'm actually NORMAL and DON'T like him... boy, would the fall from my pedestal hurt when I realized what a two-faced, two-timing..._

The class was suddenly interrupted by a loud cracking sound, as McGonnagol sat down on her chair after walking around, inspecting the students progress, and sat on the latest muggle invention, the Dooper Gooper. She shrieked as she got covered in the most hideous shade of pink paint, and she glared at the entire class, which until that point had been laughing hysterically. Now, there was silence... dead, silence. McGonagol looked at her chair and grabbed the Dooper Gooper. It too was covered in paint, but soon disappeared... once it did, she was able to see writing on it. _Property of S.E Gargy_. McGonagol frowned and glared at the student responsible.

"Mr 'S.E' Gargy? Outside... now!" McGonnagol shrieked. The student, a Hufflepuff, nodded nervously and walked out into the hall. Glaring one last time at the class, McGonnagol closed the door... but the whole class could still hear her yelling. Since she was too busy yelling, she wouldn't have heard the laughter going on in the class. Megan kept her concentration on her work, but a smile was evident. She loved pranks as much as the next person, but she wanted to get her torture over with. Lily, on the other hand, looked completely shocked and her expression was a replica of the one their teacher was famous for. James was smirking, but said not a word. Sirius, on the other hand, looked appalled at the recent display. Megan saw this, and looked at him questioningly. Before she had a chance to make any comment, he muttered, "Amateur... who puts their NAME on their pranking materials...?". She glared at him. _Why that... OOOH! I can't believe I actually thought that... oh I don't know what I thought. Black is a childish idiot and its obvious that his life revolves all around his stupid pranks. _

"Yes. Well then, I think now would be a wonderful time to remind students that products... even Muggle made... used against teachers will be destroyed." McGonagol replied sternly. She looked at the class, then sat down again in her seat. It was going to be a long day...

"Lily, will you slow down! For god's sake you look as bad as Black when you're eating! What's the rush?" Megan inquired. Lily didn't say anything, but added another roll to her plate. She shoved it in her mouth, chugged down the remainder of her pumpkin juice, and wiped whatever food remains off her face.

"Can't talk... gotta go to the library. I'll see you guys in the dorm later on, alright?" Lily asked. The girls nodded, and Lily ran off. Finally, she could get to the library. After a whole long and uneventful day, (to her at least), she would be going the one place in Hogwarts she could get away...

"Welcome! I hope you all enjoyed your dinner, the house-elves did an excellent job today I must say. Those of you here for the tutor-a-tutor program, please, gather around in front of me. For the rare few here just to study, there are more tables by the walls." A shrill voice echoed throughout the library, receiving a cold glare from Madame Pince. Lily groaned... the library would be loud, and she wouldn't get any work done. Why hadn't SHE heard about the tutor-a-tutor program? Surely, it must have been announced at some time. Just as she was contemplating whether or not to join, she saw someone enter the library that she would preferred to have avoided. Seeing the other entrance unblocked, she quickly ran in that direction. She had just gotten out into the hallway when a voice came up behind her.

"Leaving so sssssssoon?"

Dumbledore motioned for his visitor to sit in one of the comfy armchairs in front of his desk. The visitor did not sit, but instead walked over to Fawkes, Dumbledore's pet and companion, a phoenix.

"Ahhh... quite interesting, this bird. I have always found Phoenix's rather intriguing, the reasons unbeknownst to me. But of course, I am not here to discuss birds, as you well know. Yes, I think I'll sit in one of those armchairs now, Dumbledore. Very nice... office, is it?... you have here. Very nice indeed." the visitor replied. Dumbledore coldly nodded, and sat in his own chair.

"Before we get into important matters, would you care for a brandy?" Dumbledore asked. It was very obvious that this visitor was unwelcome, but Dumbledore was a kind man even to the most unwelcome guests. The visitor nodded, and Dumbledore conjured two glasses filled with brandy. The man took the brandy with great appreciation, and took a sip, savouring its taste as though it was his first time having brandy in a long time.

"Ahhh... you always did conjure the best brandy, Dumbledore. Now, to business. Do the students in question know of..." the man was about to continue, but was interrupted by the entrance of a Hogwarts student. Dumbledore got up, and walked towards the Gryffindor.

"Professor Binns asked me to come and get you... said it was urgent. Sorry to interrupt, but he insisted." the student, Eric Sanderson, replied before turning and leaving. The man stood up and walked towards Dumbledore.

"Now wait just a minute! Dumbledore, we have important matters to discuss! You can't leave now, just because some teacher got his knickers in a twist! I must know if they know, yet. You have told them, haven't you? You have to tell them, they have a right to know..."

"They will know when they need to know. The time has not yet come for me to tell them... they don't need to know yet, and there is no need to worry—" Dumbledore began, but was cut off by the angry voice of the man standing before him.

"Dumbledore, you are being selfish! You are not telling them because you don't want to burden them with it! You HAVE to tell them. They deserve to know, HAVE to know! The time IS now Dumbledore. Every year, I come to your school, and I have the utmost respect for you, but if you don't tell them soon... I will."

"I will tell them... when the time is right. Excuse me, but I believe there is a teacher in distress."

"Dumbledore..."

"Good day..."

"Why don't you leave me alone, Bellatrix?" Lily groaned. She turned around and faced the sneering Slytherin. The girl named Bellatrix sneered even more, and pulled out her wand, touching the end of it as though trying to decide what hex to use. Lily started to pull out her wand, but Bellatrix was too fast for her and pointed her wand at Lily's face.

"Now, now Evans... I don't want to have to HEX you... so why don't you just cooperate? Do a little favor for me? Hmmm?" Bellatrix swirled around to Lily's other side, with her wand still at Lily's face. Glaring, Lily looked at the ground. She would not do anything for this evil loathsome...

"Like what, Bellatrix? Your homework? No, that's not something you care about. What, want me to run through the great hall in my nightgown? WHAT IS IT?" Lily cried out. She hated when Bellatrix cornered her like this, when she was alone... it hadn't happened for awhile, but she knew it would eventually. Bellatrix glared at Lily, who stood her ground, although shaking.

"Don't you raise your voice at me, mudblood. You should be kissing the ground I walk on and rolling out the red carpet for any Slytherin who walks on this dumps floors. As for what I want..." Bellatrix's expression became stone cold as she smirked, but she heard voices, teachers, in the distance, heading in their direction. Lily let out a sigh of relief, but her relief didn't last long.

"I'll be in touch..." Bellatrix promised, before creeping into the shadows. Lily let out her breath, which until now had not realized she had even been holding it. That was horrible... and she knew her next encounter would be worse. She forced a fake smile as the teachers whose voices they had heard walked by. They didn't realize that they had just prolonged the inevitable... which Lily dreaded.

That night was uneventful, as the students all returned to their respectful common rooms. When Lily had returned, her friends had looked at her scared, sickly expression and began to ask what had happened. Refusing to tell them the whole truth, Lily replied that she was tired. The Marauder's were sitting in their respectful area of the common room, and Lily, for the first time since her horrible encounter in the Hospital Wing with James, didn't throw a glare in their direction, something which James noticed. After she went up the stairs, he turned to Sirius, who was trying to boast to Peter about the time he dated all the fourth year Ravenclaws at once.

"Did you see that, Sirius? She didn't glare at us!" James said with triumph. Sirius, however, didn't answer, and continued his story, which had Peter all but drooling at the mouth. James waited, and started to repeat himself when Remus put down his book and answered instead.

"Glare at YOU, you mean. She was only mad at you... she told me in History of Magic that she was infuriated with you, and... what were her words... oh yeah, and she thought you were an arrogant old toad who needed kissing lessons and mouthwash." Remus replied, and returned to his book. His book, however, was soon closed for him and thrown at a first year (accidentally, of course).

"What do you mean, she TOLD you in History of Magic? I sit next to you in class, where was I? I would have noticed if... WHATTAYA MEAN SHE THINKS I NEED KISSING LESSONS? IS SHE _INSANE?_ I'M THE BEST KISSER THERE IS! AND I DO **NOT** NEED MOUTHWASH! THAT LITTLE... HOW DARE SHE... IF I..." James shouted. Remus grabbed James robe and forced him to sit down again. A group of girls walked by, seeming appalled at the fact that any girl with the opportunity to kiss THE James Potter would say he was bad at it and need mouthwash. They nearly fainted at the idea, and after blowing kisses in James direction, walked up the stairs to the girls dorms.

"First of all James, I never told you so you would throw a temper tantrum in front of everyone. Secondly, you were sleeping! In fact if I remember correctly you were drooling and dreaming out loud, Professor Binns actually put a silencing charm on you so he could go on with his lesson. As for her being insane, no, she's quite sane I think, and..."

"AND you shouldn't be so self-centered, Prongsie. EVERYONE knows that I'M the best kisser... I mean, this mouth is a kissing machine just look at how it moves when I talk... some girls find it very hypnotizing and as for the mouthwash, your breath is a little rancid and your teeth are a very dull white... have you not heard of Crest Whitening strips, their VERY useful... protection all day long from foods, and it makes your teeth a shade whiter, and..." Sirius replied, until James started talking.

"Sirius, mate, you'd make a horrible tooth-paste salesmen. And I don't watch or buy muggle products, Siri—"

"PLEASE James its very rude to interrupt! So as I was saying, it makes your teeth a shade whiter and everything, I use it all the time! I mean, I can't exactly win over the heart of every girl in the school with rotted teeth now can I?" Sirius asked, while smiling as large as he could to show each of his pearly whites. James shook his head in surrender and didn't reply. Remus, on the other hand, added slyly, "Sirius, you haven't won over the heart of every girl in the school... you're..." Sirius suddenly had a look of disgust on his face, and he got up from his seat.

"Remus I JUST went through this with Peter, I HAVE won over the heart of every girl! Just wait here I'll go get my list and THEN you'll see..." Sirius muttered profusely as he started for the stairs, but poor naive Peter spoke, stopping Sirius in his tracks.

"What about Megan Winters? She HATES you, and so does Lily and Ali and that girl with the leaf shaped glasses and that other girl you said looked like a frog. Oh, and that seeker for Hufflepuff, and don't forget you've never dated a Slytherin girl before, and..."

"Thanks a lot, Pete," Sirius replied dryly, before continuing up the stairs. James snickered, forgetting completely about the statement Remus claimed Lily had made, and Remus simply smiled before fetching the book James had thrown at the first year. Peter looked upset, and twitchy, before he finally asked, "What did I say?"

The strange man who had been in Dumbledore's office earlier was back, and pacing. Where WAS Dumbledore? He knew that this man would be coming, yet he was not here. Fifteen minutes passed, and still no Dumbledore.

"I should have known he wouldn't come. He's probably hiding, waiting for me to leave so he can go another year without telling those students... well, if he thinks I'll let him do it again, he is very sadly mistaken. I meant what I said... I WILL tell those students myself if Dumbledore doesn't tell them soon. And I won't spare any details..." The man muttered to himself, as he paced even faster. Just then Dumbledore walked in, with an amused expression on his face as he saw the visitor pacing impatiently. He moved to his chair, patting Fawkes on the head while he went, and sat down. The man who had been pacing followed suit and sat as well.

"It took you long enough! Listen to me Dumbledore, you are going to tell those kids or I swear on my dear old Grammy's grave I'll do it myself, and I won't leave out a gruesome detail! The time you have been waiting for... has come. Tell them soon, or I will do it for you. I'll be in touch, unfortunately I have another appointment with another stubborn old coot, so I must be on my way." The man replied, laughing as he walked over to the window, and, throwing it open, jumped onto a broomstick and flew off. Dumbledore leaned back in his chair, eyes sad, thoughtful.

"The time... has indeed come."

**A/N:** Ok its been a LONG time since I updated... sowy! Lots of stuff to do, more then I thought. And even though this weekend is my dad's b-day, I'm going to try to get out at least one more but hopefully two chapters for this story. All my readers should be thanking me soon... lol my fingers will be dead by the time I'm done, three chapters each for two stories, around this length, plus the column I did that was almost this long (which I now do weekly... like a job, jeez... lol!) Which I already sent in... so PLEASE review, let me know what you think. Yes, I know the Crest Whitening strips was a little... odd, lol, but the commercial came on for them just as I was getting to that part of the story, and then that idea hit me and I nearly died laughing. BTW, JKR did a SWEET JOB ON HALF-BLOOD PRINCE! I just wish that who died... didn't die (in case anyone reading this hasn't read the new book... I won't spoil it :) kk?) And now, I'm going to start the next chapter... cries out in agony as angry readers throw mugs of butterbeer Ok, THATS IT! Lol j/k. R&R!


	4. Hidden Voices

**A/N:** Ok I'm overworked here! All work and no play... its just a good thing I love writing so much : ) Thanks to all who reviewed, I am now accepting flames as long as its not something stupid like "Harry Potter sux" because that's dumb considering this is a section for Harry Potter... lol its happened to others and I'm sure it'll happen to me. Just try to be more constructive in your reviews, giving ideas on how I can improve... alright? Thanks bunches! Alright, enough chit-chat... down to the story!

**Disclaimer:** Again it is my sad duty to inform you that I do not, and will not, own Harry Potter. This fanfiction, I own. Characters such as Ali, Megan, and any random student, possibly the mystery guest, I own. But Harry Potter I do not... cries and hides in a corner

**A Marauder's Tale**

_By EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Four: Hidden Voices

_Darkness enveloped them, and they couldn't breathe. _What was happening, James thought quietly. Where am I? This isn't the same dream I was having... _"I can't breathe! I... I... can't..." the voice got quieter and quieter, and James saw himself rush over to someone, a blurred figure. "You have to! We have to do this... come on, their depending on us!" The figure fell to the ground, coughing blood. _What's going on? James thought... Who is that person? Why... why am I there, like... that? And... _"Give it up... no one can stop me, not even the likes of Dumbledore's favourite students. He never realized that all along, it was I! The one he trusted... that's the old man's fault, he's too trusting for his own good! And because of his lack of judgement... you will all die, today. Would you like to see your best friends die, Potter? What about your little girlfriend? Who do you want to watch die first... you pick, you pick who will be the first to die, and it will be a very slow death. I do not believe in the Avada Kedavra killing curse... no, not at all. I believe in pain, because pain is all I've ever felt, and I want to watch everyone else suffer like I did... so who will die?" a man replied, playing with James' emotions. Looking over at the figures he could barely make out, he turned and faced the man. "You! AVADA..." "JAMES NO! THATS A FORBIDDEN..." "Good-bye, young Potter..." _

James woke up, breathing heavily, sweating, heart pounding so fast that it was deafening. He looked around, and felt a sudden rush of relief. He was still inside his room, and his friends were perfectly fine. Sirius was drooling happily while kicking at his sheets, Remus was curled up with his homework; he had probably been touching it up just before he fell asleep; and Peter was nibbling on his pillow with a smile on his face. James looked at the clock, and saw it was midnight. _Again... that's the third time this week! And always at the same time... why, WHY am I having this dream? _James thought quietly. He had to leave, get out of his room and get some air. Yeah, that was all he needed, just some air. It was stuffy in their room, had been for the past few nights. He probably ate something funny at dinner... of course, that had to be it.

Walking down the stairs, he saw that the fire in the Common Room was still crackling, and was stunned to see a red-haired girl sitting on the couch in front of the fire. He tried to walk past her without being noticed, for if he was the commotion it would cause would surely wake up the whole school, and he didn't think McGonnagol would take too kindly to being woken up at this time of the night. No such luck, however, as he had no sooner taken a step forward and the girl turned her head towards him. _I should have brought the cloak... at least then if she heard something, she'd think she was just imagining it... better say good-bye to Quidditch Practice... I'll get a detention for sure if..._ James laughed as he realized that the girl was asleep. He walked over to her, and sat down in front of her.

"Beautiful..." he whispered, staring at her perfect face, hair spread out over her face in just the right way. He saw a loose strand of hair, and tucked it behind her ear. She was a sound sleeper, so he knew he wouldn't wake her. Grabbing her legs he lied her down completely on the couch. He looked around, and saw a house elf scuttling about. Realizing he had been seen, the house-elf let out a loud squeak and started to rush out, but James stopped him.

"Begging pardon, sir, I did not mean to disturb you. House-elves are to work and not be seen... please don't give me clothes! Please, sir, I meant no harm... I thought the maiden was cold, so I just started the fire for her... she was shivering, sir, I meant no harm honest..." the house-elf pleaded with James to not be presented with clothes. James tried not to show that he was disappointed with the way this house-elf was afraid of freedom...

"Its alright... I won't present you with clothes. Er— do you think you could get a blanket?" James asked. The house-elf, looking relieved, jumped up and ran off to fetch a blanket. James looked at Lily, and felt the urge to kiss her. He restrained himself, though, and waited for the house-elf to return. He knew for sure, now, that he did like her. He had, after their encounter in the Hospital Wing, realized he cared for her. Of course, he still refused to admit that to anyone else. Nobody needed to know that James was willing to become a one-girl kinda guy. Especially his friends. The house-elf returned with a blanket, and James thanked the house-elf before covering Lily up. He stroked her hair for a minute, then got up and left the common room. Unknown to him, Lily was smiling in her sleep.

The next morning, Ali was the first to wake up. Stretching, she yawned and looked out the window that was next to her bed. The sun was shining, and there wasn't a cloud in site. A perfect day to enjoy outside, she thought to herself. She was overly relieved that it was the weekend. Most people on the weekends would sleep in, but Ali liked waking up bright and early in the morning and taking a walk outside before everyone else woke up. There was something about the peace and quiet of early morning that just really made her feel refreshed. Getting dressed, she noticed Lily wasn't in her bed.

"That's odd... Lily isn't normally awake at this time. Huh... maybe she went to have breakfast early. She didn't get anymore sleep then I did... and I didn't get a lot..." Ali mumbled to herself. Megan of course was snoring away happily, and their other roommates were sleeping with their mud masks still on. _They won't be happy when they realize they fell asleep with that on... maybe I should wake Megan, she'd want to take a picture of them to show The Marauders... or, more like, give me to show to them. She doesn't want anything to do with them now that she's mad at Sirius. I don't know why they can't just get along... I get along with them fine, especially Remus... _Ali blushed at the thought of him, and continued down the stairs.

"No... mmmm... stop... I don't wanna go to school mom... NO I DON'T! Eh... do I have... but... yes I changed my underwear... OF COURSE ITS CLEAN, WHATTAYA THINK I AM..." Sirius mumbled in his sleep. Remus laughed as he got changed. He knew his friends would sleep in late, as usual. He saw James had his slippers on still, and remembered how he thought he was dreaming when he heard someone leave the room. He must have been more awake then he thought. Concerned, he walked over to James and was going to wake him, but realized that his friend probably hadn't gotten to sleep until late last night, and decided he would question him later. Lately, James had been getting up in the middle of the night and leaving, coming back after a long time away and looking dead on his feet.

Remus was glad that he had friends as good as Sirius, Peter and James. True, they were troublemakers, and lived to prank people, but they were still his best friends. He had never imagined, the day he got accepted at Hogwarts, that he would ever make friends, and he had also never imagined that when they found out about his Lycanthropic condition, they would still want to be friends with him. No matter what anyone said about them, they were his friends. He remembered the day they found out about him being a werewolf... he had been so afraid that they would turn away from him, shun him, expose his secret. Instead, they decided they wanted to help him by becoming Animagi... they still hadn't quite mastered it, but they were trying, and even that was enough to make Remus the happiest guy at Hogwarts... friends that cared, real friends.

"_We know, Remus. There's no point in continuing with your lie. Your mother isn't really sick... we wrote to her, she said she was alive and kicking... perfectly healthy, not a sore bone in her body. Of course, we wondered why you had lied... and where you had been going, if not to see your 'sick' mother." James replied softly. Remus looked up from his book, frightened, but pretended not to care at all if they snooped around in his life. "Oh?" he replied. Sirius grabbed his book, and threw it over to the arm chair, accidentally through Nearly-Headless Nick. "Oh yes, throw things at me just because you know it will go right through me, honestly does nobody care about a ghosts DIGNITY around here...?" he ranted as he floated through the walls. _

"_Yeah... Remus, why didn't you tell us? Why didn't you ever mention... your condition?" Sirius asked. Peter nodded, and Remus looked threw a glare at them. "QUIET! There are people around... and I never told you because... it never came up," Remus finished lamely. James laughed, and Remus looked confused... had he said something funny...? _

"_Remus, what do you mean it never came up? What about all those times we told you about our lives before Hogwarts? What about when we first started asking you where you went every month? You could have told us then... you had all the opportunities... why did you keep it a secret, we're your friends! Friends don't lie to each other, Remus." James replied. Remus looked at the ground. He had never expected that they would eventually find out his secret. He had just kept hoping that they would swallow his stories of his visits with his 'sick' mother, and leave it at that. He should have known it was too good to be true. He was just waiting for them to jump up and start screaming that there was a werewolf that could attack them at any time. He waited a little longer... but heard no shouts or screaming. Sighing, he got up and started to walk away. There was no way they would want to be his friend after this... he'd have to leave Hogwarts, no sane parent would want their children going to school with a werewolf. And after all that Dumbledore had done for him, he would have to leave... it wasn't FAIR..._

"_Where do you think you're going, Moony?" Sirius asked. Remus stopped in his tracks. "What did you call me?" he asked, thinking that he must have somehow heard wrong. Sirius looked at him surprised. "I called you Moony... we should have nicknames, then we could have like hidden identities, and nobody would know who were were talking to. This is soo cool! I mean a were—" he lowered his voice "wolf as a best friend... this is awesome! I mean, I feel bad that it happened, mate, don't get me wrong, but that won't change it... so... its awesome!" Sirius exclaimed, now that he had finished saying 'werewolf'. Remus looked surprised, and had to sit down. _

"_You mean... you don't... you're not... afraid of me? You still want to be my friend?" Remus asked, hoping that it was true, that his ears did not deceive him, and that his friends had accepted him as what he was... a beast. That's what he had come to think of himself, anyway. James looked at Remus, and this time it was his turn to be surprised. "AFRAID of you? Are you kidding? You wouldn't kill that mosquito that was buzzing around the classroom in Herbology yesterday, why would we be AFRAID of YOU? As for still wanting to be your friend, I don't think anything's changed. So what, you leave the school once a month do to an unfortunate yet permanent ailment. What gave you the idea that... what did you think we'd do, run away from you screaming?" James asked. One look at Remus told him that his petty joke hadn't been far off. "Remus..." James began weakly, but Remus just forced a smile. "It wouldn't have been the first time. Not everyone deals with it as well as you guys did... in fact, most react very harshly." Remus added sadly. James and Sirius looked shocked that anyone could act that way, but decided to let it drop. _

"_So how did you become... what you are? I mean, were you born with it? Or were you bitten, the old-fashioned way? What was going on the day it..."_

"_Someday, I'll tell you. Just... not today, alright? It's still too soon for me." Remus replied, before getting up and leaving the Common Room..._

Sighing, Remus remembered other times when his friends had asked him again and again how he became a werewolf... and again and again he told them that he wasn't ready to talk about it. The truth wasn't that he didn't want to talk about it because the memory was still fresh, still causing him emotional pain, but actually because it was too horrific, gory even, to word... and he didn't want his to know about what he went through. They didn't need that burden... the tale alone would send shivers down their spines...

Ali entered the Common Room and saw Lily sleeping on the couch in front of a blazing fire. That was odd... Lily always said she hated sleeping on anything but a nice, big comfy bed. She saw Lily was smiling, and realized she was dreaming.

"What's this..." Ali wondered as she bent and picked up a piece of loose paper. She looked on either side, but saw no writing. Finding it very odd, she decided that it must just be a scrap sheet of paper, and tossed it into the fire. She watched as the corners darkened, then began to burn into ash, then watched as a hole was burnt through the middle, before exiting the Common Room.

The Fat lady seemed very angry at being disturbed at such an early hour, but instead of making any comment, she yawned and slammed shut. Closing her eyes, she began to sleep again, but her relaxation was short-lived as Remus threw the portrait door open and left as well. He didn't notice Ali walking very slowly through the halls, and walked right into her.

"Sorry, I didn't see you th— Ali? What are you doing up this early?" Remus asked, genuinely surprised. Ali, although quiet unless with people she knew well, came off as the type to sleep in at least until the normal hour that 'early birds' were up. Ali looked up, and was delighted to see Remus standing in front of her. For as long as she could remember, she had always liked the shy, book-keenintelligent one of the marauder's, although why she didn't know.

"It's alright, Remus, it was only an accident. And I'm normally up this early... I like..." she cleared her throat "I like walking around Hogwarts early in the morning, before anyone else is up. I am surprised to see you awake, though. From what I've heard from Peter, you're not a very sound sleeper. You probably wake up hundreds of times during the night!" Ali exclaimed, before realizing that she had in a sense admitted to talking to Peter about Remus. She was about to explain when Remus laughed. "Yeah... I do, actually, and I am a light sleeper... in fact, I heard James get up again last night. Every night this week he's been moaning in his sleep, and waking up and leaving the dorm. I wonder if he ran into Lily last night?" Remus asked thoughtfully. This time it was Ali who laughed, and she told Remus that if Lily had seen James, she wouldn't have been smiling in her sleep.

"Yeah, I guess not. But then—" Remus was cut off by Ali who covered his mouth with her hand. He looked at her questioninglybut stopped when he heard voices coming from one of the old classrooms... one which was never used. He was about to object that they shouldn't be eavesdropping when he suddenly heard, "Of course not, master... he is a fool, he would NEVER suspect me..." an oddly familiar voice replied. "Are you sssssure, boy? He may be a fool, but he is a very smart fool..." another voice threw in. "Master, believe me, I know Dumbledore, he's an old fool... even if he did suspect me, a student, he wouldn't do anything about it... his hearts too large, the fool... he'd say I was brainwashed, and I'd let him believe that..." the first voice replied. All of a sudden Peter came up behind them, and threw the door open.

"Pete, no!" Remus cried out, but it was too late. Peter looked at Remus and Ali as though they were acting like they were another species or something. "What?" he asked. Remus waited... surely, whoever had been inside this room would attack them, but when he looked inside... there was no one there.

"Yeah, but Lil's, that was the only door, and we were standing there. I even stood at the door while Remus and Peter looked around to see if he was hiding, or wearing a cloak, and there was... nothing. They wouldn't have had time to hide anyways!" Ali exclaimed. A few seats over, Remus was retelling the same story to James and Sirius. Megan yawned and grabbed more bacon.

"Well then maybe they disapparated... I mean that would have made..." Megan was cut off by a very frustrated Lily. "You can't Apparate OR Disapparate in Hogwarts! If you'd read Hogwarts: A History, you would know things like this."

"Yeah, well... what about... was there a... oh shut it," Megan said crustily as she chewed on her bacon, brooding. Lily rolled her eyes and rearranged her plate, moving the eggs and bacon around the pancake. She looked up at the Teachers table, and saw that Hagrid, who had always joined the teachers for every meal, was nowhere to be seen.

"That's odd..." She replied thoughtfully, as she re-scanned the Teachers table to see if maybe she had missed him, which was near impossibly considering his size. After realizing he indeed wasn't sitting at the Teachers table, she began to worry.

"What's odd?" Remus asked, as he sat down on her other side. He was coming to grab more pumpkin juice, and the maple syrup that Sirius said Megan stole. Lily looked up at him and watched him sit down, and began to eat her breakfast. "Well," she began, "Hagrid's gpne... he never misses Breakfast... it's the most important meal of the day, he's always very serious about that. He rarely comes for lunch, but he's never missed Breakfast before. And if what you and Ali said you heard is true... meaning that you weren't just tired and imagining it... well, I'm worried I guess. The maple syrup is on the other end, by those first years," Lily added, seeing Remus looking frustrated. He groaned, and taking the pumpkin juice, went back to where the Marauders were sitting.

Sirius was in the middle of telling a very boring joke to some of his fans, when Remus returned empty handed.

"Where's the maple syrup, Remmy?" Sirius asked, sounding as sad as he could make himself sound. Remus sat down and drank some of his pumpkin juice. He grabbed more pancakes and added them to his plate, taking the time to cut them perfectly even. This, of course, was torturing Sirius. Where was his maple syrup?

"Lily said that some first years have it. Peter, could you pass the french toast? Thanks," He began adding more food to his plate, for some reason hungrier today then he had ever been. James looked at him angrily for a moment, then tried to ask as though he really didn't care, "So... are you two good friends?"

"Of course, James, we're the only ones that stay awake and pay attention to History of Magic as well as Ancient Runes, so after this many years, we're bound to be friends. Here," Remus added, throwing imitation Maple Syrup at Sirius. Sirius pouted... "This isn't the real stuff! I don't want imitation, I want the real stuff!" Sirius looked like he was ready to cry, and one of the girls that wanted to go out with him jumped up and fetched it for him. He smiled at her, making her knees go weak. "Thank-you," he replied.

"What do you mean you're good friends? Who said you could be good friends with her? SHE'S THE ENEMY!" James shouted, pounding his fist on the table. Hundreds of heads turned his way, and, embarrassed, he sat down again. Remus looked at him, amused.

"I wasn't aware that I needed to clear my friends with you first, James."

"You don't... I didn't mean... well I MEANT... I..."

"Don't worry, James, we're _just_ friends." Remus replied slyly, watching James flush. "I didn't say you... I don't even care really I mean..."

"Admit it Prongsie... you have a crush on Ev—" Sirius began but the rest of what he had to say was blocked by a banana that was shoved in Sirius mouth, courtesy of James. Looking around, James lowered his voice.

"I do NOT like her. I merely didn't want our dear friend being swayed by the enemy... when the war comes, we must have all soldiers on our side! NO double agents! And– Yes, Sirius?" James asked, looking at his friend whose hand had flown into the air, and he was saying, "Ooo! Ooo! Pick me! Pick me!"

"Do I get the girl?"

**A/N:** Ok, there's the fourth chapter done. I did TWO chapters just for you guys : ) And I'm going to do two chapters for my other story, and when I'm done that I may add a fifth chapter (making it three done close together) to this story. Make sure to review! Tell me what you think, what you liked, didn't like... and how it can be improved.


	5. Remus Moony Lupin

**A/N:** Well, this story I do believe is two chapters ahead of my other one... so, GO HP! Since I have absolutely NO homework, I decided that before we start watching movies here, I'd at least start working on a chapter for this story. So, here it is. Hopefully you like it, and if not, tell me in your review WHY not. I'm going to make this story a little more interesting now, with more mysteries and twists happening. So, enough of my yackking... here is the chapter, and I hope everyone has a good New Years! (Ouch, wanna know something sad? It USED to say Thanksgiving... as in, CANADA'S time for Thanksgiving... ohhh double ouch)

**Disclaimer:** I do NOT own Harry Potter... as much as I wish I could say I did, I don't. So... yeah.

**A Marauders Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Five: Remus 'Moony' Lupin

For as long as James could remember, Remus had always been... unusual. What made him so was, at first, unknown. What mysterious ailment did his mother have that was taking Remus away from school so often...? In fact, once a month... it wasn't until around their third year that James, Sirius and Peter came to the conclusion that Remus Lupin, their book-keen best friend, was a werewolf.

At first, Remus had been upset that his friends knew... he was so used to the reaction of others that when his friends found out about his... condition... he was devastated, ready to leave Hogwarts. Of course, his friends only accepted him more, and, although at first it was a general shock, Remus was glad his friends had discovered his secret. He had hated lying to them for so long, but he just wanted to be normal... LIVE a normal life, for a change. For the beginning of his life, things had been going great. It seemed as if he would be all set for Hogwarts, after another year and some before he would be eleven. There was always legends that his parents had told him to keep him from staying outside too late, and from going to far into the woods. "Don't stay out after dark and don't go further then the middle of the woods, or Fenrir Greyback will be dealing with you..." they had always said. Of course, Remus never realized that Fenrir was a real person... or werewolf. He had always thought that it was a mythical tale concocted by his parents to scare him into following their rules, like muggles and their 'boogeyman' tales. He believed none of it was true. So, when it was after dark and he was still in the middle of the forests and a man came out saying he was Fenrir Greyback, Remus had thought that it was all a prank that was made up by his parents to teach him a lesson. Sadly, that wasn't the case. He ignored the warnings he received from Fenrir, and continued walking through the forest. And the next thing Remus knew, the full moon was out, and he had been bitten. It was a horrible memory... one he hoped to never share with anyone. It still haunted him at night when he thought of every explicit detail, the blood... and he also remembered the very first transformation into a werewolf he had.

A lot of people often confused the desires of a werewolf and vampire. Sure, they'd know the difference between them if they saw them... a vampire was normally very pale, sensitive to light. They had the piercing look of desire in their eyes... desire for human blood. Of course, they could have animal blood if they desired, but to them human blood was better... more luscious... bitter sweet. It was to them as the richest of chocolates is to the average human. Werewolves, on the other hand, desired human flesh... the tearing of the skin, the smell of fear lingering in the air... the blood meant nothing to them, really. Some werewolves, such as Remus, did not like human flesh... sure, in their werewolf form they would, but they would do whatever it took to overcome that until the full moon was over. They shunned their lycanthrope side, whereas many others embraced it... welcomed the desire to kill... rip... to tear the flesh bit by bit. Fenrir Greyback was one of those werewolves. Often when people discovered Remus was a werewolf, they thought he was a danger ALL the time, like a vampire.

It was night time again, and Remus awoke with a start. He couldn't stop himself from crying out in his sleep, and, unknown to him, he had woke up a restless James. Still not realizing that James was awake, Remus got up out of bed and walked out of the dorm. It only took James a second to decide to follow with his cloak. He had to know what was bothering Remus... and since Remus refused to tell anyone, there was no other option but to follow him.

James silently followed behind Remus, who was so oblivious to the fact that there was someone following him, not even sensing that he was being watched, that James wondered for a moment if he was perhaps sleep walking. Remus, though, was not sleep walking, and was in fact wide awake.

"Why do I keep having that dream?" Remus muttered aloud. He expected no answer, as he walked to the couch in the common room. James, safely hidden under his cloak, moved closer. He saw Remus was simply staring into the fire, not even really seeing it, and James sighed. Obviously, there wasn't anything more to see. He started to walk away, when he heard Remus scream. A face had appeared in the fire, and all Remus got out was "Fenrir..." before he passed out. The face in the fire disappeared, and James rushed over to Remus. He threw his cloak off, and bolted into the halls. Even if Filch caught him, at least someone would be informed and coming to help.

Remus woke up, groggy. His vision was blurry and all over the place. When it finally focused, Remus saw James asleep in one of the armchairs. Shocked, he realized he was in the Hospital Wing. But... why would he..?

"You passed out last night, Mr Lupin." Dumbledore's voice sounded from behind the curtain, and he moved it out of the way. Remus sat up in his bed, and nodded towards James. "Ahh, Mr Potter? He found you last night, saw you just as you passed out," Dumbledore smiled, "And, I suspect, possibly before. He was raving on and on about how a face appeared in the fire, and you only muttered 'Fenrir' before passing out. Remus," Dumbledore began, much more serious now, "I have to ask you... did you see Fenrir Greyback in the fire last night in the Gryffindor Common Room?"

"Fen... Fenrir? I... I think I remember seeing him... but... I'm sorry, I can't— I can't remember." Remus lied. He remembered too well seeing Fenrir in the fire, but he just couldn't bring himself to admit it. Not now... it COULD have been a mistake. But if James described what he looked like...

"Very well, Mr Lupin... that is all that I wanted to know. Do try and feel better, with any luck, Madanm Pomfrey may release you today. And, be prepared... I do believe when she learns that Mr Potter has slept here all night, she will possibly get a little... loud." Dumbledore smiled one of his weird, yet comforting smiles. Remus nodded, and leaned back in his bed. Had it been Fenrir that he saw in the fire? Or was it just... a dream? _No, _he told himself, _it couldn't have been just a dream. James saw a face too, so the only question is... was it Fenrir that I saw in the fire. _

"UNHEARD OF! A STUDENT SPENDING THE NIGHT IN THE HOSPITAL WING, SLEEPING IN AN ARM CHAIR OF ALL THINGS! I WON'T HAVE IT, NOT IN THIS SCHOOL!" Madame Pomfrey shouted. James was still sleeping, so she did a levitation spell and took him to the common room, muttering under her breath how the students couldn't care less about rules anymore.

"Are you sure? If I remember correctly," Ali began, "that's the... _thing_... that bit him." James' head shot straight up. That made him think for a moment... he had heard about someone named Fenrir before.

"Not... surely, not Fenrir GREYBACK?" James questioned. Ali looked at him oddly, and nodded. "Yes... didn't you know that?" she replied. He shook his head. So... that... _thing_... was responsible for Remus'... furry little problem? _Then what does he want with him now... and what dream was Remus talking about? I think perhaps its time I have a little talk with him. _James thought. He thanked Ali and headed for the Hospital wing. Sirius and Peter followed him.

"Hey, buddy. How are you feeling?" James asked. Remus looked at him, confused... he was acting a little peculiar.

"As fine as I usually do. I don't understand why I have to stay here, but Madame Pomfrey thinks that it is in my best interest to make me stay an extra day. Then, she added that because a certain time of the month is fast approaching, I might as well stay in here until I have to... go." Remus sighed, and leaned back in his bed.

"Hey, Remus? Can I ask you a question... about last night?" James asked cautiously. Now Sirius and Peter looked at him confused, but he ignored that.

"Er, I... I suppose it would be alright if you asked one— "

"What dream is it that you keep having?" James asked. Remus looked shocked for a moment. He had expected a question about homework, maybe, or even a question about why he passed out, but not of his dream.

"Er, what dream are you referring?" Remus asked, trying not to sound panicky or unusual. No such luck. The words came out of his mouth as a loud squeak, and he knew he was doomed to be forced to answer. "Wait... how do you even know about me having a dream repeatedly? I never told— Were you spying on me!" Remus demanded. James looked at the ground, and muttered, "Guilty as charged..."

"WHAT? I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT MY BEST FRIEND WOULD SPY ON ME!" Remus shouted. James flinched. It was only a matter of time now before Madame Pomfrey came and kicked them out of the Hospital Wing for disturbing one of her patients.

"I... well, see I... well what kind of a friend doesn't confide in his friends? What kind of a friend doesn't tell his friends that he's having the same dream over and over again?" James demanded. He had taken the easy way out... he had never been that great at apologizing, especially if he couldn't see what he had done wrong. Just like that time McGonnagol demanded he apologize to Lily because he had turned here hair bubblegum pink... he couldn't see what he had done wrong, so he instead said, "Sorry your so ugly that your hair has to be pink just to get people to take a chance and look at you." Obviously, at least to everyone except for James, he had gotten detention.

"You know what James? I'll give you an answer to that when you grow up." Remus replied, and turned over. It was clear he wasn't going to talk anymore. James, angry, stormed out of the Hospital Wing. Remus turned back over and sat up in the hospital bed.

"So, guys, what's up?" he asked them, as if nothing had just happened. Sirius, deciding to play it safe, pretended as if nothing had happened as well, and told him about his latest idea for a prank. Frowning, Remus listened anyways.

Lily, Ali, and Megan were in the common room doing their homework when James walked in, red faced. Lily looked up for only a second, hearing the portrait slam and the Fat Lady screaming, "CAREFUL! Do you want me to fall off the wall?", and then seeing it was only James who walked in, she decided to pass it off as not important. After all, it was only James. She jumped when he swore at a 3rd year, and decided to take action.

"Listen Potter just because you can't get a date for the dance doesn't mean that you should go swearing at innocent bystanders! I mean, really, its quite pathetic." Lily added. James glared at her, sending a shiver down her spine. Since when does he glare at her? Usually, it was the other way around.

"Whatever," he muttered and began walking away. Lily stood up.

"'Whatever' is that the best you can do, Potter? You do realize, I'm sure, that 'whatever' is the lamest, most pathetic retort of last century, right?"

"FINE, firstly I don't know about a dance, and secondly, I'm not mad because I got turned down. If I get turned down I get turned down. I'm mad because... oh what do you care anyway!" James stormed up the stairs and slammed the boys dormitory door shut. Ali raised her eyebrows at Lily.

"What was with you trying to get him started? Usually you ignore him, today you went out of your way to try and get to him." Lily ignored the question and started her homework again.

"Okay, so your cornered by a gang of Death Eaters— " Lily continues. Megan, who had been trying to stifle a yawn for 10 minutes, finally couldn't help it.

"No offense, Lils, but this is the most boring homework that I have ever gotten. I mean, in all honesty, why include Death Eaters?" Megan asked. Lily shrugged.

"Dunno. I do know that this years Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher has gone to many hearings about going against the Ministry intentionally. I suppose that's why he's always trying to do things for teaching that the Ministry wouldn't approve of." Lily replied. She looked at Ali, waiting for an answer. Ali sighed and closed her book.

"Sorry guys, but I think I'm going to head it for Hogsmeade. I've had enough of the homework for today, I think. Anyone else coming?" she asked. Lily was shocked... Ali was usually a little more patient with homework, it tended to be Megan who was always trying to get out of doing homework. Ali ran up the stairs and left Lily and Megan behind looking startled.

"Oh, yeah, _she_ gets to leave, _I_ get stuck here! Where's the fairness in this? What about human rights? No, not human rights, STUDENT rights!" Megan said, standing up and pounding her fist in her palm. She scribbled something on a piece of paper and jumped up on the desk holding the paper in the air.

"NO MORE HOMEWORK! NO MORE UNFAIRNESS TO STUDENTS!" Megan shouted, holding the paper in the air. Sirius and Peter walked in, and Sirius pretended to wipe a tear away from his face.

"My hero," he replied jokingly. Megan glared at him and threw the paper at him sticking her tongue out. She turned on her heels, leapt off the table and went right after Ali to the girls dormitory. Lily threw her hands up in frustration.

"Okay, okay! I give!" she replied, and closed her books.

After getting to the girls dorm, Ali looked in her closet at her dress robes... basically, a dress with a cloak... and sighed. The dance was just 2 weeks away, and she didn't have a date, nor did she even think that she was going to bother going. At this rate, what was the point? A boy's image popped into her head, and she laid back on her bed daydreaming. Lily and Megan both stormed in talking, but stopped when they saw Ali's face.

"Ali... what's up with you?" Megan asked. Lily walked over and sat on Ali's bed, and looked to see what she was staring at. It was her dress robes.

"OH... never mind, I get it." Lily said to Ali. Megan looked from Ali to Lily suspiciously.

"What do you guys know that I don't?" she whined. Lily motioned for her to be quiet and looked at Ali, who had returned to a semi-normal state.

"Why don't you just ask him Ali? I'm sure he'd want to go if you did," Lily added. Ali looked horrified at the suggestion and furiously shook her head. Megan groaned loudly, still being kept in the dark. She opened her mouth to complain again, so Lily whispered in her ear.

"What? SHE LIKES REMUS! I _KNEW_ IT!"

**A/N:** Well, a little short, I just kinda threw that dance idea in there from thin air. I really should do what JK does to prevent Writer's Block... actually plan the whole story out ahead of time. I'm kind of doing that with my new story, but not exactly like what she did. Please read and review, let me know what you think about this story!


	6. Dance, Dance: Part 1

**A/N:** This story was, for awhile, discontinued due to lack of reader interest. It finally sparked some reader interest, and so it is being continued again. Thanks to the one who reviewed and wanted this story continued. I apologize, I can't remember your pen name and its too late for me to go online and check.The chapter title of this story was inspired by Fall Out Boy's song "Dance, Dance" but the actual chapter isn't.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, not me. And also Warner Bros... this story belongs to me, and so does some of my original characters such as Ali, Megan, and probably more in the future.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Six: Dance, Dance: Part 1

Remus followed Madam Pomfrey quickly, making his way to the Shrieking Shack beyond the Whomping Willow.

"Quickly, now Mr Lupin, the full moon is almost out," she replied. Remus nodded, prodded the ring by the Whomping Willow, and entered the Shrieking Shack. Tonight would be a rough night... his friends couldn't be with him, they had too much work to do. He looked out one of the windows at the Hogsmeade Village, and then briefly looked at the sky. The clouds moved... the moon came out, and Remus had no thoughts... none whatsoever. He screamed in pain, the pain he never got used to, the pain of transforming into a werewolf. Falling to the floor, he writhed around on the floor, still screaming. As fur began to cover his skin, he stood up. His nose grew longer, into a snout, and his eyes turned a piercing yellow. And then... he was gone. Remus Lupin was, at this moment, no longer... it was as if he had never been Remus Lupin.

The werewolf looked around, hunger possessing him. He had to eat... he needed the taste of human— _NO! I... I don't need to eat humans, I..._— flesh. He looked around, but saw only a chair. He growled, and jumped at it, picking it up and throwing it at a nearby window. He ran around back and forth, and he wanted to escape, but for whatever reason couldn't. A tree, quite large actually, was in the way. Of course, this tree was the Whomping Willow, but the werewolf Remus had turned into didn't know that. He was, actually, quite unaware of it. He began to howl... it was going to be a long night.

_"Why didn't you tell us this before?" Remus asked. Professor Dumbledore looked down at his hands._

"_I admit, it was... a fools... mistake. Blinded by my wish to protect you all from the truth, I decided to wait, and wait, until you were old enough. I never thought you were... really, you were all old enough ages ago. I was afraid to tell you. I know now that this could be one of my greatest mistakes, but it is done." Dumbledore stood up to gaze out of his window, and Megan saw James walk up to him._

"_Professor... we can't... there's no way we could possibly do this!" James replied. Dumbledore turned his gaze onto James, and then slowly on turn to Megan, Lily, Sirius, Ali, Remus and Peter._

"_Yes, you can. If I believed, even for one second, that the seven of you were incapable of this, I would not have told you. I have faith in all of you... I know you will succeed." _

"No... we can't... mmm... we can't..." Megan moaned in her sleep and went to turn over, but resulted in falling off of the bed. Luckily, she had woken up no one but herself. She stretched as she yawned, and decided when her stomach grumbled to sneak down to the kitchens. She slipped on her shoes and got up, walking down the stairs. She saw Sirius entering the common room through the portrait. He opened his mouth to make up an excuse for why he was out, but she raised her hand as she yawned.

"Save it, Black. I could care less what you were doing out at this time of night," she replied. He didn't stay to talk and immediately headed to the boys dormitory.

"Thanks," Megan replied as the house elves in the kitchen supplied her with some muffins. She shoved one into her mouth, and walked past the hospital wing. She noticed that Remus wasn't in there, and grew curious. _Where would he be at this time of night...?_ She wondered. He had lately taken to being in the hospital wing often, so it was strange to see him gone. Deciding she would head outside to get some fresh air, Megan snuck out of the castle, and gasped. She saw Madame Pomfrey and hid behind a tree.

"Poor boy," Madame Pomfrey muttered sadly. She walked back into the castle without ever noticing Megan, who was now very curious. _Could she be talking about Remus?_ Megan wondered. She waited until she was sure the nurse wasn't going to come back out, and snuck over by the Whomping Willow. It was moving again, but she could have swore that Madame Pomfrey had come out by the tree, and it hadn't been moving. Megan tripped carelessly and slid in some mud. Her foot smashed up against the tree, and for whatever reason, it stopped moving entirely. Cautiously, she entered the entrance from behind the tree, walking quietly. She found that she was in the Shrieking Shack, and what she saw was most definitely NOT a student. It was a werewolf, fully transformed. She ran out of the Shrieking Shack as fast as she could before it noticed her there. _Who could that... oh no! Remus!_

It was at that moment that Megan began having flashbacks from when she and her friends had first noticed Remus' disappearances...

_"I... I have to go to my mothers. She's sick," Remus had replied. _

"_Er... well my mum, see... she has this rare disease, I can't, er, pronounce it, but its quite bad, and I just... want to spend time with her." Remus replied. Megan looked at him skeptically._

Then, there was the time when Megan had first caught him lying... _"Remus! I thought you were going to see your mother?" Megan asked. Remus looked up, startled, guilty. _

"_Oh, well... she's doing better and I wasn't feeling well, so I... came here instead, to get better." Remus had lied. Megan at that moment had known something wasn't quite right, but it wasn't her place to comment. After that, Remus never had to visit his mother again. Megan had assumed the worst, that his mother was dead. _

"Oh, Remus..."

The werewolf sniffed the air... he smelled flesh. Human flesh. He went to run towards this human, but the part of him inside that was still even somewhat human stopped him, allowing Megan to escape unharmed.

"So you think she recognized you?" James asked in a low voice. Remus was back from the full moon, but as he usually did, he was forced to remain in the Hospital Wing for awhile to recuperate. Remus nodded.

"Sure of it. I don't know why... I just have this feeling that she does. Shh!" Remus replied. Ali walked in and was carrying several books. Remus looked at them and then glanced up at her questioningly. She cleared her throat a bit, and without looking at him, she replied, "Homework... for History of Magic. Lily was going to bring it, but... something came up," Ali lied. In honesty, Lily had told Ali to take the History of Magic homework to Remus and perhaps talk to him alone. Ali had only agreed because she knew that the other Marauder's would be at their friends side, as they always were. Remus smiled.

"Oh, thanks Ali." he replied. Ali nodded, and looked as if she was about to say something, but stopped herself.

"Er, right, well... feel... better." Ali replied. She walked out of the Hospital Wing as fast as she could and immediately felt like slapping herself. She had acted like such an idiot and it was only too obvious that nothing had really come up with Lily. Remus didn't seem to notice, though, and looked over his History of Magic homework.

"Hmm... still working on prophecies..." Remus muttered. James rolled his eyes.

"Come on mate, seriously, for one second can you not focus on homework? Did you just see that?" James asked. Remus shrugged.

"Saw what, James?" Remus asked tiredly. Sirius fell out of his chair, shocked.

"You mean to tell me that you _didn't_ notice that? Blimey Pete could have noticed that, and _you _couldn't? That's just sad, mate," Sirius shook his head sadly and got up. Peter looked at Sirius confused.

"Notice what?" Peter asked. Sirius nodded at the homework. "Oh, Ali?" Peter asked. Sirius nodded and turned to Remus.

"For heaven's sake, mate, PETE noticed and you didn't! We need to get you more of a social life, get you away from those dreadful... _books,_" Sirius whispered the last word as though saying it out loud would curse him. Remus rolled his eyes.

"I don't know what you're talking about. If the three of you are just going to stand there and tell me how naive or blind I am, then you might as well leave so I can get this essay for Professor Binns done." Remus picked up a piece of parchment and Sirius grabbed it away from him.

"You're truly stupid, mate." James shook his head. Remus glared at him.

"This coming from the one who spied on me and kissed a girl who hates his guts. Right, James, I'm stupid. That's why I have to help you blundering idiots with your History of Magic homework, with your Divination, with you potions. Because _I'm_ stupid." Remus snatched back the parchment and began writing the essay. James just stood there.

"Are you still mad at me for that? Come on, I was worried about you. How often before the full moon have you gotten up in the middle of the night? You don't even like coming with us to pull pranks at night because your afraid of losing Gryffindor points!" James accused. Remus didn't say anything to James and instead chose to ignore him.

"What about Ali should I have noticed anyways, Sirius?" Remus asked. Sirius shoved James out of the way and sat down.

"How she was acting. You seem to be the only one who didn't pay attention to that." Sirius added. Remus looked confused and thought for a moment. He scribbled on the parchment a bit before actually responding.

"So what? She always acts like that." Remus replied. Sirius grabbed the quill from Remus' hand.

"No wonder you couldn't notice how she was acting, Moony, if she always acts like that around you. Take it from someone who's talked to her when you weren't around, she does NOT act like that." Remus tried to grab the quill back but Sirius held it high into the air so he couldn't. Sighing, Remus asked,

"What should I be noticing, then?" Sirius grinned triumphantly.

"That she li— " At that moment Megan walked in and shoved Sirius away.

"Remus... I... need to talk to you. About where you were last night." Remus looked away but Megan moved over to the side of the bed.

"It _was_ you, wasn't it?" she asked softly. Remus nodded. James smiled.

"See Remus? Not everyone will be afraid of you because of your furry little problem," James replied. Remus smiled faintly.

"Some do, James. You guys are the weird ones who actually accept me..." Remus reminded them quietly. Megan reached over to hug Remus. Sirius pointedly looked away.

"I'm really sorry, Remus. I didn't tell anyone, and I won't. Not even Lily or Ali," Megan promised. Remus shrugged.

"Well, Lily already knows. She figured it out first year, and confronted me." Remus admitted. James and Sirius looked shocked.

"You never told us that she knew!" James exclaimed. Remus winced.

"Because I knew _you_ would make a big deal out if it. Anyways, I'm going to work on this History of Magic essay..." Remus told them. Taking the hint, they all started to leave. Sirius turned around.

"Next time Remmy pay attention... when people are around... you may notice a few things,"

**A/N:** Well there is the latest chapter of A Marauder's Tale. What did those few reading it think? Let me know in your review! Its only because of the readers that I keep writing this story... I already know what happens, so I don't need to write it for myself.


	7. Dance, Dance: Part 2

**A/N:** I really want to apologize for not updating sooner. Let me assure you it was not because of the lack of reader interest. Although I have officially decided to wait for at least 1 review before updating, I do enjoy this story and would have otherwise quickly updated it. I'll save the major boring details and get to the point. For the past week or two I haven't been able to get on the computer or even online to update this story or any of my other ones. My grandmother was in the hospital, to make a long story short, and I didn't tie up the phone line and rarely went on the computer except one day that I was sick and stayed home. On that day, I played Nancy Drew: Danger on Deception Island. If you like Nancy Drew you should really play the computer games. Anyways, my grandmother is home now (yay!) and I am able to update. I hope anyone reading this now will understand.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter is not mine, because if it were, Sirius would come back to life as some odd reincarnated adorable teenager. And as he hasn't, it's quite clear--- it's not mine.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_**EilayAdnayVolieay**_

_**Chapter Seven: Dance, Dance: Part 2**_

Remus, since the day his friends had pointed out about Ali's strange behavior, was confused. This was not some feeling that was normal for him—after all, usually Ali was always a little awkward around him. She even seemed awkward around her own friends when Remus was watching for whatever reason. So her behavior had not been any different than it usually was. But apparently James and Sirius, and even Peter, thought that it was different. He decided finally after pondering this matter in his head all day that he would—he felt ashamed in admitting it—spy on Ali, when she was away from him. When she wouldn't know he was around. Only then could he see what she was supposedly like when he wasn't around. And maybe then he would find out how differently she acted around him compared to others.

"So do you think Remus actually listened to you Sirius?" James asked. Sirius shrugged. Although he cared a lot about his friend, at this current crucial point in their prank on the Slytherins, he only wanted James to focus on the matter at hand.

"Dunno, Jamesie. But lets say we talk about this after this prank is set up? I don't want my icky Jamesie-poo's mind getting all frazzled when we're about to pull a big prank!" Sirius replied. James rolled his eyes at the nickname he had been given.

"I still don't get why we had to use this silly muggle substance," James replied. "Wouldn't it just be easier to hex them or something?" James replied. Sirius shook his head.

"No, Mr. Potter, it most certainly would not. Well okay it would, but we are the official best pranksters of this school! We have a reputation to keep! We cannot just throw that away! We—"

"Alright, alright, I get the point." James replied tiredly. Sirius looked at him for a moment.

"James… you've changed since you started liking that… Evans girl," Sirius replied sadly. "You're neglecting me! Don't you _love_ me anymore?" Sirius demanded. He got on his knees and clutched at James' robes. "LOVE me James!" he shouted. Several students who had before been minding their own business, turned to see what the strange commotion was all about. James kicked Sirius off of his robes.

"Would you stop that? For heaven's sakes Sirius, I've been as good as ever. I mean…. Oh shove off!" James shouted at some giggling third years that were laughing at his comment. Sirius shook his head.

"You see? Now you're criticizing those third years because they laughed at your comment. Before we used to laugh about that… together!" Sirius shouted dramatically. James rolled his eyes.

"Would you stop that? You're going to make people think we're a couple or something," James added in an undertone. That was the last thing he needed. Although he supposed a lot of the girls at the school would actually find that attractive—after all, two of the most popular guys in school, a couple? James shivered at the thought.

"You see? THE OLD JAMES WOULDN'T CARE!" Sirius shouted. He pretended to sob loudly and then stopped and got serious—no pun intended.

"O-kay that's about enough of that, lets say we finish this prank shall we?" Sirius replied. James shook his head furiously and Sirius frowned. "Are you still going on about that? Listen its something they wouldn't suspect, and—"

"Hello, Mr. Potter. Mr. Black," Sirius turned around to see Professor Kettleburn, their Care of Magical Creatures teacher. He put on his charming smile, which might have worked had their Care of Magical Creatures teacher been a very young and fairly attractive woman. Instead it was an old man with graying hair, wrinkles and scars in places that Sirius refused to imagine.

"Detention, I believe, would work well for a situation such as this, don't you agree boys? How about tomorrow night, when everyone else is enjoying themselves at the dance?" Professor Kettleburn knew how much James especially wanted to go to this dance, and grinned gleefully. He had been hoping so much for an opportunity such as this to arise. Now a dance would go off perfectly without any frivolous pranks from the two troublemakers.

"I don't think that would be necessary," a voice replied from around the corner. Professor Kettleburn turned around and was soon face to face with the Headmaster.

"Headmaster… I…. Well you see… these boys were planning a prank, I caught them while they were… setting it up, and detention is a necessary punishment that any rule breaker must face. Surely, on the night these boys are looking forward to most, they should have detention? Clearly their detentions in the past have done nothing to them," Professor Kettleburn had more difficulty stringing that blurb together than he had restraining the rampaging Hippogriff in James' and Sirius' sixth year.

"You are correct, but innocent until proven guilty. No one was harmed, and if no prank is actually pulled on any unsuspecting student, I should see no harm in allowing these two students off with simply a warning. After all, Christmas is fast approaching, and its good to get into the spirit a little early, don't you agree?" Dumbledore replied. He smiled at the two boys before walking off. After Dumbledore was well out of earshot, Kettleburn turned on them.

"Perhaps you have Dumbledore on your side, but be warned: You are from this point on, on a very tight and short leash. Any slight disturbance I so much as hear of, and it's a month of detention… I do say that around the usual Quidditch practice time would be fair?" Kettleburn replied. He grinned… perhaps the two boys didn't get detention this time, but they soon would, they knew. And he was still triumphant.

"You know I get the strangest feeling that he doesn't like us," Sirius replied.

"Dunno why," James added, and they burst out laughing at the memory of the time they had accidentally of course stolen his toupee.

"Thank you so much Ali for helping me with this," Laura replied. Ali smiled.

"It's alright, I don't mind. So, are you looking forward to the dance tomorrow night?" Ali asked. Laura smiled shyly.

"Yes… actually, Matt asked me to go with him." Laura added. Laura was a girl that was very shy, but well liked and just needed a confidence boost every now and then. Ali liked her very much and helped her often with her Ancient Runes, a class she struggled terribly in although she was almost as brilliant as Lily in everything else. Matt Walker was the boy that she had liked for the past three years and who had recently started noticing her. Ali smiled, truly happy for her.

"That's great, Laura! I'm really happy for you," Ali replied truthfully. Laura smiled and wrapped her arms around her knees.

"Thanks. Do you have a date for the dance?" Laura asked absentmindedly. Ali smiled weakly and glanced across the lake.

"No…" she replied, "but that's alright," she added quickly. "At least then I can dance with whoever I want. As if I ever would," Ali added, laughing. From a distance, Remus was watching them. He turned around and for a reason he couldn't explain, felt sad. He had observed Ali in an environment that excluded him entirely, without her knowing. He felt terrible for spying, and now he felt even worse. She must hate him; it was the only logical reason he could come up with that she was acting so much more differently around this girl than him. He had come up with entirely the wrong conclusion.

When he returned to the dormitory, James and Sirius attempted to ask him if he had found out what they had meant about Ali acting differently around him. When they saw how sad he looked, they thought for a moment that something must be seriously wrong. It was James who came up with the conclusion that Remus must have thought Ali wouldn't still like him if she knew he was a werewolf.

"Mate, you shouldn't worry yourself so much about what people will think. About your furry little problem, I mean," James added. "Megan didn't, we didn't, Lily obviously didn't… so why should Ali?" James asked. Remus didn't answer and at hearing Ali's name, felt even sadder. Why, he didn't know, because he only cared for her as a friend and if she didn't return that feeling, fine. But if that was the case… then why did he feel as if his heart were ripping into two pieces? _No, not two…_Remus concluded, _more like… a million._ He ran up to the boy's dormitory and slammed the door shut.

The next day flew by fairly quickly, and finally the dance was almost there. Lily, Megan, and Ali, along with the rest of Hogwarts female population, were getting ready for the dance. James, Sirius and Peter were attempting to cheer up the suddenly depressed Remus.

"Look Remus, _1000 pages of learning fun!"_ James replied, waving the book they had gotten for him in the air. Remus didn't even laugh, and rolled over onto his other side.

"I'm just not feeling well. A bit peaky after the full moon, I suppose," Remus added. It was a lie, he knew, but it was the only way he could get his friends to leave without having to tell them why he really was sad. Why he had been sad all day so far, since he had spied on Ali. Even he still didn't know exactly _why_.

"Oh… well… you're coming to the dance, even if we have to drag you there. Remember that, Remus. We're going to go… wander… now, so we'll talk to you later." James replied. He, Sirius and Peter left, leaving Remus alone to his thoughts. He got up and looked out the window. It was snowing even more today, and the white snowflakes were finally staying on the ground. He looked at the clock on the wall—it was now four in the afternoon. In another four hours, the dance would start. Would he go?

"Ja—Potter, has Remus come out of your dormitory… at all today? He wanted me to help him with this Arithmancy problem, but I haven't seen him come out all day." Lily sat down on the other end of the couch, still trying to stay as far away as possible. James shrugged.

"Nope, he's been in there all day. Says he's feeling a bit ill after…" James looked around and lowered his voice. "The full moon," Lily was shocked.

"James!" she whispered loudly, "you aren't supposed to tell people of that!" James rolled his eyes.

"Thank you Sherlock," James muttered. Lily looked at him confused.

"That's a muggle character. How do you know about him?" Lily asked. James didn't answer at first and tried to avoid the looks of the many girls that were standing behind him glaring daggers at Lily.

"The library has a muggle section and for a detention I had to sort the books. I saw this book about this guy named Sherlock Holmes who was supposedly some great detective. And for your information, Lily, Megan confronted Remus about seeing him near the Whomping Willow. She promised she'd never tell anyone, not even you or Ali, but Remus said you already knew." James got up and grabbed his bag that was on the floor.

"Where are you going now?" Lily asked. James grinned at her.

"Since when do you care?"

Remus had finally come to the conclusion that he would go to the dance. After all, just because Ali for some reason hated him so much, that didn't mean he shouldn't go out and have some fun of his own. And after such a dreadful full moon adventure, he deserved some fun for a change. He was only glad that they didn't need to wear dress robes—he had accidentally tore his up at home one full moon, and still needed a new pair.

James entered the dormitory looking rather pleased with himself. Remus noticed this, and decided to ask what was up. James sat on his bed still smiling.

"Oh nothing… except I just had a for real conversation with Lily. You know how she came up here about that homework stuff? Well I ran into her in the halls and actually _talked _to her. And for once she didn't call me Potter! Isn't that great?" James asked. Remus forced a smile.

"Oh. Yeah, great." He suddenly thought of Ali but shook the image out of his head. "But James? I think you should know that the main reason Lily seemed to not like you so much was because you acted so… what were her words… oh, immature and arrogant. She didn't like how you seemed to think she had to like you because everyone else did. She thought you were full of yourself, and she didn't like how you pulled pranks on people. Some of them she thought were funny, but others she thought were mean and rude even if the person deserved it. Like in the fifth year when you pulled Snape's pants down. She still knew he deserved it, but thought you shouldn't have done that anyways. Maybe she thinks you've changed or grown up a bit," Remus replied. He got up and James noticed he was dressed.

"Hey! You're out of that weird funk finally! So does that mean you're going to the dance?" James asked. Remus smiled weakly.

"Well, I decided that I was feeling better. A little, I guess," Remus added. James looked at him suspiciously. There was still something up with his friend.

"So are you going to ask Ali to the dance?" James asked finally. He knew that his friend was probably still worried about what Ali would say about him being a werewolf, but what did he have to lose? Remus looked at James confused.

"Why would I? She hates me," Remus replied. He started to open the door when James put a hand on his arm.

"What do you mean, _she hates you?_ Didn't you see what she was like around other people?" James asked. Remus nodded.

"Yeah. She laughs around them, she actually talks to them. With me, she doesn't even know what to say and when she does say something its always brief and then she runs off. I don't know why she'd hate me so much, but… I guess she does," Remus said ----sadly. He put a smile on before James noticed what was up.

"Wait… that's why you think she acts like… Remus you truly are the stupidest smart guy I know!" James cried out. Remus knocked James hand off his shoulder.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I'm going to go take this book back to the library," Remus replied. He left the dormitory, and didn't hear James saying, "She _likes _you, not _hates!_".

**A/N:** I realize that the chapter is a bit short, but I really don't have too much time left to work on this at the moment because I have to help my mom paint my room… since I moved into my grandmothers and she wants to make my room seem more like my own and more… livable, for me. So here's the chapter, I'll try and get another one done as soon as possible, but until then… read and review.


	8. Dance, Dance: Part 3

**A/N:** Firstly, I want to apologize for not updating sooner. It was honestly something I had no control over at the time, but I still feel bad. I don't want people thinking that I discontinued this story again, when I didn't. What happened was caused by family health issues and school work and in the end I was so busy and rarely got online. Now, I've decided that even if I don't get online I'll use any spare time I can to work on this story as well as my other stories so that I can always have the chapters ready and you might get two or three out at once if I haven't updated in awhile, so all the chapters you will get eventually even if it takes time until I start updating again.

Also, I realize that this story got off of its main topic, and I want to apologize for that to those who may have been discouraged. This chapter will have more of the mystery and the prophecy, it is the last dance chapter, as this chapter is actually the dance. I was trying to just establish some basic ground for other storylines mixed in but I agree that I focused a tad too much time on it and so here's the chapter which I promise to make as long as I can. Even longer than the chapters of my other stories I just recently updated.

**Disclaimer:** I probably don't have to keep repeatedly telling you this, but Harry Potter isn't mine. gasp! My what a shocker that was.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Eight: Dance, Dance: Part 3

That night it was finally the dance. James had attempted many times to tell Remus that Ali didn't hate him but in fact liked him, but every time James brought up Ali, Remus would either change the subject, ignore it, or leave the room. James, finally growing frustrated, decided that he'd let Remus think what he wanted, and that would be that. If Remus got mad at him later for not telling him, well, so be it.

_Tonight, _James thought to himself, _is going to be perfect. No pranks, no reasons to act immature. Maybe Lily will— _

"JAMESIE! You will save me the first dance, won't you?" Sirius asked, running over to James and hugging him. James rolled his eyes.

"Sirius, if you act like this at the dance, you won't GET a first dance with anyone, I'll make sure of it. Now shove off and change into your dress robes already, Remus and I have been ready for some time now and your still in your school robes." James stood up and opened the boys dorm door. "When you're ready, we'll meet you in the Common Room. Try and hurry up, will you? I want to get to the dance sometime tonight," James added. He and Remus headed out and Sirius pouted.

"Oh, woe is me!" he cried out. James had left the door open, and Sirius' fan club walked by as he said that and giggled at the sight of him changing. Sirius hurried to cover himself. "All right, all right you've had your laughs, now shoo!" he said, slamming the door.

—

As James and Remus headed down the stairs to the Common Room, James saw Lily. She was the most beautiful girl at the moment that he had ever seen. She had her hair pinned up with delicate red curls falling out, in just the perfect arrangement. Her dress was a glittering white, flowing at her ankles. But what made James notice her the most was that she was wearing something _very_ familiar— the necklace James had given her for Christmas the year that she was forced to stay at the school, without her friends. He wondered if she remembered that time... he knew he did, because it was the best Christmas he had ever had.

—

_James that year would be remaining at the school for the Christmas holidays, with Remus and Sirius. Peter had to go home, but the boys knew they would have fun anyways. Most Gryffindor's had gone home for the holidays, except for James, Sirius, Remus and Lily Evans. Lily was by herself, with none of her friends there with her. _

"_James... there's been a slight change of plans," Sirius started, as he came back from the owlery. James looked up at him, confused._

"_What?"_

"_My mother wants me back home for the holidays. Well, not really," Sirius added. "You know how my parents think of me. But... they do want me to be there, even if I am just a disappointment to them, because they're having a family dinner with all these relatives. I would have flat out refused to go, except Tonks is going to be there, and even Andromeda. My parents long ago disowned them, but for some reason they want the whole family together. I'm sorry, but Remus will still be here." Sirius replied. Remus looked up from his book that he was reading._

"_Actually, I'll be in the hospital wing. The full moon's fast approaching, and soon I'll be put there until I have to go to the Shrieking Shack. I'll be at the Shrieking Shack over Christmas... I'm sorry," Remus added to James. "I wish I didn't have to, but I can't control it." _

"_Its okay, mate, its not your fault what happened to you. And its not yours either, Sirius. I guess I'll just have to occupy myself somehow. Maybe I'll do my holiday work," James added. He waited a moment and then he and Sirius burst out laughing._

"_Yeah, right, as if I'd do that." _

"_You mean you're not done it yet? But James, we have three essays to do and—" Remus was cut off by James._

"_I'll do it eventually, just... not right now. You're the abnormal one, not me, Remus, when it comes to homework. You actually ENJOY it; I don't." _

_Finally the Christmas holidays had begun, but as Remus had said, he was forced to stay in the Hospital Wing. James promised to visit him every day until he was back, and true to his word, he did. On Christmas Eve, James went in the Hospital Wing and saw Lily Evans sitting there with Remus. James cleared his throat to make his presence known, and felt an odd leap in his chest when Lily smiled briefly, slightly forced, at him._

"_Potter," she acknowledged. James nodded at her and sat next to Remus._

"_Hey Rem, how are you feeling?" James asked. Remus shrugged._

"_Lousy, as usual. I'm really sorry again James that I'm—"_

"_Remus, its not your fault. Stop apologizing, its okay, really. Just... feel better. Sorry I got here late, I took your advice and finished up that homework. Boring, but its finished." James turned and saw Madame Pomfrey coming his way. "Merry Christmas, Remus, I'll come by in the morning and drop off whatever gifts come for you alright?" James said. Remus nodded._

"_Thanks."_

_Lily said good bye to Remus as well and placed a package next to him. He looked at her confused._

"_It's a gift," she said. "I thought you might get bored so I thought I'd give it to you early." Remus thanked her and found it was a book. After, as James and Lily were leaving the hospital wing, James turned to her._

"_That was really nice of you," he said. _

"_What was?" Lily asked absentmindedly, still walking along. _

"_The gift. When Remus gets sick, he gets really... sad. I don't know why," he said hurriedly, although Lily was sure that he knew perfectly well about Remus being a werewolf, "but he does. It was nice of you to visit him, as well. I know your friends, but its still nice. Remus... he has a hard time believing anyone could want to be friends with him, so I know he appreciates it."_

"_The two of you are close, aren't you?" Lily asked as they reached the Common Room. James nodded._

_The next morning, James awoke and immediately took Remus' gifts to him._

"_Wish I could hang around, mate, but I wouldn't want to miss breakfast. I'll sneak you some," James added, winking. Remus laughed._

"_Thanks. Anything's better than constantly having the same thing every night here," Remus added. James saw that he was looking a bit better, not as pale as he was before._

"_Think you'll be out of here soon?" James asked. _

"_Knowing Madame Pomfrey, not likely." Remus replied. James laughed and headed back to the Common Room, where he intended to write a quick thank you note to his parents for the Quidditch book they had given him. When he arrived there, he thought he heard quiet sobbing. He knew that it was only him and Lily there, because the sixth years who had stayed were already eating in the Great Hall and no other third years had stayed. _

"_Lily?" James called softly. He saw her then, sitting in a corner staring out the window, tears streaming down her face. He sat down next to her, concerned. "What's wrong?" he asked her. _

"_Nothing," she said, wiping the tears away. _

"_Its more than nothing, Lily," he said. He was shocked when Lily threw her arms around him and began crying again. He didn't ask her what was wrong again, but instead comforted her and allowed her to cry until she was ready to tell him. _

"_Its... my sister. My parents told me they were going on a second honeymoon, a vacation for just the two of them, and that Petunia would be staying at school. But then... my sister never gets me anything for Christmas and when she does its some cruel joke. She sent this picture with the date in the bottom corner, from home." Lily handed the picture to James who turned it over. _

"_Dearest Witch of a sister, I do hope you're enjoying your time at school. I'm at home, with my friends over, baking right now with mom. Dad's out getting the Christmas tree. You see, I told mother that I was embarrassed to have friends over when you were, so she made up the entire story of the honeymoon. Merry Christmas, love, Petunia." James read. Lily burst out crying again and he hugged her close to him. So this was why she was upset... _

"_You miss your family," he said softly. Lily nodded._

"_I just want to be at home... I know Petunia exaggerates and that there's some other reason why I had to stay at school, but still. Knowing that Petunia gets to spend Christmas with them and not me is torture, especially when none of my friends are here. What's worse, is in the picture, she's wearing the necklace my grandmother gave me before she... before she died. My mother said she'd keep it until I was older, so I could wear it then." _

"_Wait here," James said. He ran up to his dorm and threw his trunk open. He knew that his mother had hidden it somewhere in his trunk. When he found what he was looking for, he remembered what his mother told him._

"_Your grandmother gave this to your father, and told him to give it to someone special when the time was right. He gave it to me, before we had ever dated, and now we're married. You're old enough that you're bound to have girlfriends. Give this necklace to someone really special, she'll cherish it forever just as I have." she had said. The necklace was made purely of emerald and was a family heirloom of its own. Although James would never tell anyone this, he liked Lily a lot, even if he did tease her often. To him, she was someone who was special. And right now she needed something to cheer her up. He ran down the stairs and handed it to her._

"_Here," he said. "I want you to have this. It's a family heirloom that's been passed down... my mother never had a daughter, only me, and she told me to give it to someone who— well give it to someone. I know its not the same," he added, "but its something you're sister will never have." Lily shook her head._

"_I can't take that," she replied. "It's a family heirloom, YOUR family." James offered her a hand to help her up._

"_Yes, and its my necklace, meaning I can give it to who I want. And I want to give it to you," he said. "Lift up your hair," he added. Lily did so and James fastened the necklace on. It looked beautiful on Lily, and the green stones matched her eyes perfectly, down to the brilliant glitter her eyes had when she was happy or excited._

"_Thank you," Lily said softly. "I'll... I'll cherish it forever," she said finally. She hugged James, and for that Christmas, they allowed themselves to forget how much they were supposed to dislike each other. Lily forgot about the pranks, James forgot about the oath he had made with himself to hate Lily. _

—

The memory slowly faded from James' mind and he walked over to Lily who was standing by herself. He grabbed her hand and pulled her to the side.

"You wore it," he said softly. Lily knew he was talking about the necklace.

"Just because I hate you doesn't mean I should hate this gorgeous gift," she teased.

"Do you hate me, Lily?" James asked. Lily was about to joke again but saw that he was asking a serious question. He truly wanted to know.

"James..." she started, "I... you can be horribly immature, arrogant and so full of yourself. At times you act like such a jerk that I can't believe you're the same person who gave me this necklace. You break the rules of this school without any remorse, you're just so stuck up at times. But..." James had been looking rather sad until she added the 'but'. "I don't hate you," she said quietly. "I don't know why, but I just can't bring myself to hate you. Maybe its because I know that you can be sweet, funny, and really nice." she walked away back over to Megan, and James smiled. _She doesn't hate me!_ he thought excitedly. It was definitely a step up from before, when she had loudly told everyone willing to listen how much she hated James.

"What was that all about?" Megan asked. Lily turned and saw James sitting with Remus, smiling and talking quietly.

"Nothing, James was just glad to see that I wore this," she said, lifting up the necklace. Megan raised her eyebrow questioningly.

"Why?" she asked. Lily sat down on the couch and motioned for Megan to do the same.

"James gave it to me for Christmas in our third year. You see..." Lily told the story to Megan quickly, glancing at James from time to time. He pretended not to notice, but when it came to Lily there was few things he didn't notice. Sirius finally came down the stairs, so Remus and James stood up and started for the dance, which was being held in the Great Hall.

—

The dance was going great. James hadn't danced with anyone, because he was too focused on Lily, but he was enjoying himself anyways. Remus was looking sad every now and then, but if he thought that James or Sirius noticed, he quickly would perk up and say some joke or other to seem as if he was perfectly fine. They weren't fooled— James considered mentioning to Remus that Ali liked him, but decided against it when Ali came over. She turned to Remus shyly.

"R... Remus?" she asked softly. He glanced up at her.

"What?" he asked. Ali seemed almost discouraged for a moment, but James smiled at her and mouthed, "Ask him,"

"Can I... talk to you alone for a second?" she asked. Remus began to say no, but James kicked him hard under the table.

"OW! I mean, yeah, I guess." he walked off with Ali.

"Remus... um... would you like to... d-d-d... dance?" she asked finally. She bit her lip, afraid he'd say no. He even started to, but James ran over.

"Sorry Ali, one second, I have to tell him something urgent, be right back." James dragged Remus over to the side. "Listen I don't care if you believe me or not but Ali doesn't hate you, she likes you. A lot. And if you like her, I suggest you stop acting like such an idiot and do something." James shoved Remus back over to Ali and then left.

"I'd love to," Remus said. He was stunned. _Ali likes me?_ he thought. But... that didn't sound right. Maybe James was lying to him... after all, Remus had acted sad when he thought Ali hated him. He grabbed her hand and led her off to the dance floor.

Sirius soon left to dance with some girl, so James sat by himself. At least, until Lily came over.

"Why aren't you dancing?" she asked, taking a drink of her pumpkin juice. James shrugged.

"I'm not one for dancing, I guess. I like walking better, do you want to go for one?" James blurted. He suddenly felt like smacking himself on the head. He could have just sat there and enjoyed talking to Lily, but instead he had to ruin it by asking her to walk around. She was probably going to think that he just wanted her alone. Or that he—

"Sure," Lily said. She got up and led the way outside. It was cool out, so James summoned her coat that she had left inside.

"Thanks," Lily said. It was a matching coat that went with her dress, and she hadn't realized how cold it was outside until she had actually stepped out there.

"So, are you enjoying the dance?" James asked. Lily nodded.

"Yeah, they outdid themselves this year in decorating. Sad, actually... it's the last year we'll be here,"

"Do you like school that much?" James asked.

"Its not so much school as my friends being here, and my sister Petunia... not being here. Its fun here, and I'll miss it. After this, its out in the real world. It's a scary thought." Lily added. James nodded.

"Yeah, it is," he said softly, staring at her. What he would do to spend his time in the real world with her! But she'd never know. She knew he liked her enough to ask her out, but not that he had... as much as James had once hated to admit... fallen for her, head over heels. Regaining his composure before Lily caught him staring, he asked, "What do you plan on doing after this?" he asked.

"After the dance?" Lily said.

"No..."

"Oh... after school. I'm planning to try and be an Auror, actually. Silly, I know, and I'm sure you want to burst out laughing at the sight of me as an Auror, but its really the only thing I've thought of. What about you? I suppose you'll want to be a professional Quidditch player?" she teased. James shook his head.

"Not necessarily. The classes I took... this year, their for being an Auror as well. But Lily, if you want to be an auror, you'll need to do better in Transfiguration. I could... I mean, if you wanted, I could... help you maybe?" James asked. He hoped she said yes, because any time he was able to spend with her would be appreciated. Lily smiled.

"I'd appreciate any help. Goodness knows I need it..." she saw that James was very close to her, and she knew that he was going to try to kiss her. She should turn away, slap him, yell at him, anything! But she didn't. She was going to allow it to happen, but she very much didn't want to. Just as he was only inches from her face, there was shouting inside the Great Hall. He grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her back inside. He saw that there was red stains now all over the walls on one half of the Great Hall... was it blood? It smelled foul, and James was reminded for some reason of the cow slaughters that had been going on over the past while around Hogwarts.

"YOU!" Professor Kettleburn shouted angrily. "You did this! YOU! Well, well, well... I told you, Mr Potter, that you and your friend Mr Black over there would be on a tight leash. But still, you decided it was fine to play this prank. Well it most CERTAINLY is not. I've had enough of your foolishness. You go and you do things so terrible, so against the rules, and get detention. But after seven years you continue it! Detention has not fazed you in the least. There is only one thing left to do. You are suspended from the Quidditch team, until further notice." he grinned, happy to have finally gotten something on James Potter, the student who had caused him so much trouble over the past few years. James was devastated, but he wasn't the only one.

"Sir?" Remus asked. "If there's no actual proof that James did this, how can you punish him?"

"Because Mr Lupin, everything that goes wrong here is ALWAYS his fault. His, and his friend Black over there. I'm tired of it, and more drastic measures need to be taken."

"But it wasn't James," Lily spoke up. "... I did it," she confessed. A false confession, James knew. But it seemed to have quite an affect on Professor Kettleburn.

"Y-y-you? But... you're the smartest student here! You're Head Girl!"

"And he is Head Boy," Lily reminded him. "Being Head Girl or Head Boy doesn't mean you are incapable of pulling any prank."

"I... one hundred points from Gryffindor! And one week worth of detention. There's nothing to see here, go on!" he shouted at the students. The music started up again, and everyone went back to their dancing and socializing.

"Sir, it wasn't Lil—"

"Mr Potter, Mr Lupin, Mr Black, Miss Winters, Miss Lloyd and Miss Evans, I wish to see you in my office. Follow me," Professor Dumbledore said. James began to protest, after all Lily was getting in trouble over him! But Lily covered his mouth with her hand.

"James," she whispered, "drop it. I'm being nice to you for a change, I know you didn't do that, and I'd rather lose house points than have you lose your position on the team. Quidditch is everything to you," she added. "So please, just drop it." she walked ahead with Ali and Megan, and James felt like pulling her into his arms and telling her that Quidditch wasn't everything to him... _she_ was everything. Instead, he kept quiet, and followed Dumbledore.

—

They were sitting comfortably in Dumbledore's office, waiting for him to speak. He had been pacing for five minutes when finally Dumbledore sat down.

"I should have told you sooner," he started. "It was a mistake to let it go this long, but it seemed unfair— fate has a way of choosing dangerous destinies for us, and we have no control once the destiny begins."

"Excuse me sir, but just what exactly are you talking about?" James asked politely. Dumbledore conjured himself a brandy and pumpkin juice for them. He drank his brandy in barely a gulp. He seemed terribly nervous, which in turn made the six Gryffindors nervous. What could have Dumbledore so wound up? He conjured another brandy before speaking again.

"It seems, I have made a mistake. I allowed myself to believe you needed more time, but you were ready for this knowledge long ago. I was selfish, and didn't wish to tell you. Now I must live with regret and suffer the consequences. I believe this term you have learned about the prophecy that Godric Gryffindor heard? A most famous Seer foretold it, and only Godric heard it. The exact words are unknown to most, as Godric told no one, but instead wrote it down after his murder was foretold. It was hidden in this school, but believed to be a myth. It is not a myth... it is very real, very terrifying, and very dangerous. It involves seven students..." Dumbledore added. They were quiet for a moment, letting all of it sink in.

"Professor, I don't get it. Why did you have to talk to US about that prophecy Bin– I mean, Professor Binns, told us?" Megan asked. Professor Dumbledore lowered his gaze and looked at them all through his half moon spectacles.

"Because the prophecy has yet to be fulfilled... and only those whom the prophecy involves can fulfill it." Dumbledore replied.

**A/N:** Well this is a nice long chapter for you to enjoy, and I hope you did. More in the next chapter about the prophecy, and remember: the prophecy is hidden. The guest Dumbledore had, the unwanted visitor, knows only that it involves the seven students... Dumbledore, after some research and such, has figured out who it is. But nobody knows exactly what the prophecy says. Its yet to be found, but just as Dumbledore knew of the Horcruxes through investigating, he knows who the prophecy involves. Don't forget to review the story, tell me what you thought about this chapter.


	9. The Hidden Prophecy

**A/N:** Seems like a lot of people are still upset about the not updating thing. Well, I can't help that, but because this story is starting to get a little more interesting, I want to continue it. As for why I didn't update last weekend, although nobody reviewed so likely nobody noticed, I came down with the flu and was basically bedridden. Went to school on Monday, thought I was going to hurl, so the rest of the week I stayed at home with the usual coughs, stuffy nose, headache, muscle pains and hey, what flu doesn't involve fever. Still sick but decided I wanted to work on this. Unfortunately I can't use my moms laptop for awhile since she's doing something with it, otherwise I would have had a chapter last weekend. Don't forget to review.

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter doesn't belong to me. Never did, never will.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Nine: The Hidden Prophecy

"Professor," James replied suddenly, "you said that this... this prophecy involved seven students. But," James looked around once more as if to make sure, "there are only six of us here. I don't under—"

"One of the students was not at the dance, in fact in the hospital wing. Are there any... guesses... as to who this student is?" Dumbledore asked. He seemed, for the moment, to be more calm. Obviously he did not like telling these students that their destiny had been foretold before they were even born, but he was trying not to focus on the exact content of the prophecy. Or, more like, the possible content of the prophecy. He could not forget that he didn't even know what it said– perhaps it was too dangerous? But no matter— dangerous, or not, it was their destiny. It was the fate that awaited them.

"...Peter Pettigrew," Lily said finally. Dumbledore smiled, although it was obviously weak and mostly forced.

"Yes, Miss Evans." he replied finally. Megan looked at her astonished.

"How th e bloody hell did you guess that? There are a million students at this school," she said reasonably.

"Look at it this way, Megan. Coincidentally enough, Remus, Sirius and... and James, are friends. Close friends, actually. You, Ali, and I, are close friends as well. The only other close friend that wasn't here was their friend Peter. It was... it wasn't that difficult to guess. Professor, I do have a question. How can you possibly be sure that the prophecy involves us?" Lily asked.

"Now Miss Evans, unfortunately I cannot tell you exactly how I came to know it involved all of you. Although I admit it was a mistake not to tell you sooner, this is most definitely a piece of information I can't tell you. Let us leave it at, I did my research well. There is no mistake— the students this prophecy involves, is you."

"So what is it that's... in our destiny?" Remus asked. He had kept silent most of the time, never making eye contact with anyone else in the room. Now he was staring at Dumbledore dead on, awaiting an answer. Dumbledore stood up and walked over to the window nearest his desk. He was silent, and after several minutes, James cleared his throat.

"Professor?"

"I... I must apologize, Mr Lupin. For a moment there, I fell into my own world. Forgive me," he said quietly. "It is something I often do. Regarding the prophecy, I don't know what it says. Not even the slightest. No research that I've done has been able to uncover anything regarding what it says. I believe that truly, nobody knows. At least, nobody that's alive now. But all hope is not lost," Dumbledore replied softly. He grabbed a vial from his desk and stared at it, lifting it up to the light. "I believe that the memories will always live on." Sirius and James looked at each other, confused. Megan and Ali did the same thing. Remus stared at the ground, saying nothing, but Lily knew too well that Dumbledore often didn't make sense. He often spoke as though his life was based on riddles. In the end, most of what he said made sense— after you thought it over for awhile.

"So in other words, we have to find it?" Sirius asked. Dumbledore smiled.

"Well I certainly wasn't expecting it to be you to figure that out first, Mr Black. I was actually expecting Miss Evans or Mr Lupin to figure it out, considering how they so quickly figure things out in their classes. I hear of these things," Dumbledore added when Lily and Remus looked up at him. "Just because I don't teach, doesn't mean I don't talk with the teachers. For the moment, I have nothing further to tell you. You may ask questions still if you wish, but I don't know if I will have the answers to all of them. And Miss Evans? I will see about having your punishment removed. I know you were only saying that because you knew Mr Potter and Mr Black were innocent in this... prank... and thought it wrong for either of them to lose something when they did nothing to deserve it. A very noble thing you did," he added. "Unexpected, actually. I seem to recall last Christmas when you were screaming at the two of them because they— what was it again?" Dumbledore asked.

"Gave me a third arm and I believe I had scales— I don't want to even know what spell they used." she added. Dumbledore smiled, the first genuine smile he had made since they arrived.

"Good night," he said. That was his way of informing them that there was nothing further he had to say. He knew that they had no questions, because he had told them that there wouldn't be too many answers. They got up and left, but Sirius noticed in the mirror that Dumbledore had placed his wand to his head. A silvery fluid seemed to shoot out of his head into his wand, and was placed into an empty vial similar to the one he had been looking at before. When Dumbledore looked up, Sirius looked away from the mirror quickly and left with the others. He never said anything to them, not at all, until he was sure they were far enough from Dumbledore's office.

"Shove a sock in it for a moment, would you Winters?" Sirius asked. "Important thing to bring up. Lets go to the kitchens," Sirius added to James. He turned back to face the girls. "You too." he replied. They rolled their eyes and followed behind. James saw the painting and tickled the pear. The kitchen was soon revealed and they went inside. The house elves were busy cooking, and after asking the students if there was anything that they could get for them, they ignored the students entirely.

"Just what was so important that you had to tell us here, in the kitchen?" Megan asked, annoyed.

"Close your mouth a moment and maybe I'll be able to get part of it out," Sirius replied. Megan glared at him and crossed her arms. "Before I left, I saw in the mirror in Dumbledore's office— he had his wand up to his head, and a silvery liquid flowed out from his head into the wand. Then he put it in a vial. Any ideas as to what happened?" Sirius asked. He turned to Remus and Lily, assuming they would know.

"I haven't the slightest idea. Tell me, why was it that you decided this was some top secret knowledge that you had to share with us in the kitchen?" Lily asked.

"Because Dumbledore caught me looking in the mirror and immediately placed the vial in his pocket. It was as though he didn't want me to see," Sirius said. James stood up.

"If he didn't want us to know, maybe we should forget about it." he replied. He walked out.

"He also didn't want us to know that we had a prophecy to fulfill." Remus replied quietly. "Should we just forget about that?" James stopped walking and sighed.

"I don't know, Remus. There isn't a whole lot that makes sense right now, so what do you expect me to say? I mean, why us?" James asked.

"Maybe we're the only ones who can do it." Ali replied. Remus looked over at her, almost surprised to hear her speak. She was quiet mostly, and it was the first time she had spoken since she had asked him if he wanted to dance with her.

"How could we even know?" Megan said, irritated. "We don't even know what it is we're supposed to do." Lily stood up.

"Actually, we do." she said finally. The others looked at her confused.

"How do you figure, Evans?" Sirius asked. "We have no idea what this prophecy says, so how do we know what we're supposed to do?"

"Honestly its not that difficult, I would have thought even Peter could have figured it out, if he was here with us. Find the prophecy. It's the only thing we're sure we have to do at this point."

—

Over the next several weeks, the two groups didn't speak to each other much. Even Remus rarely spoke to them— it was as if they were afraid to be reminded that they had something to do. Lily wasn't sure if Remus, James, Sirius or Peter ever looked for the prophecy, but there was rarely a moment when she didn't. She often missed all of the meals and when she didn't, she was only there long enough to eat quickly and then was jetting off somewhere else. And it wasn't even the library she was going to! She was going all around the school, trying to see which place would be suitable to hide a prophecy. Of course, she knew that was pointless, because if Godric Gryffindor had wanted to hide the prophecy and have it kept hidden until the people it involved were at Hogwarts, he would have hidden it well. An even scarier thought hit Lily: What if someone had already found it, and it was no longer at the school? It could be kept at the Ministry, forever hidden away, never to be fulfilled. But that was silly, Lily reasoned with herself. After all, it was a quite famous prophecy, and surely there would have been some story on it in the Daily Prophet, anything! It was then that Lily decided that she couldn't keep looking on her own. She needed help, and not just Megan and Ali's help. They weren't the only ones that the prophecy involved.

It was finally the weekend again. Lily had made sure that all of her homework was done in advance and had even helped Ali and Megan with their's more than usual until it was complete. She had spoken to Remus, and knew he was doing the same with James, Sirius and Peter. Now was not the time to have homework that needed to be complete. Finally when she saw Remus enter the Common Room, she knew that James, Sirius and Peter must be done their work.

"All set," Remus replied. "Their just putting the books away, I told them that I'd bring back their homework and make sure they didn't somehow lose it like they did with that essay we had last week." He walked up to the boys dorm and shortly afterwards, Sirius and Peter entered alone into the Common Room and sat down on the couch, Peter laughing loudly at some joke Sirius had told him. Lily waited a few minutes, and seeing that it appeared as though James wasn't coming, told Ali and Megan she'd be back in a minute. Without even going to Sirius or Peter, she walked out of the Common Room and began heading towards the library. Perhaps James was still there... _He better be,_ Lily thought to herself. _We have things to discuss and he has to be there too! I wonder wher—_ Lily's thoughts were interrupted as her mouth was covered and she was dragged forcibly into an abandoned part of the hallway where there were no students. She was then turned around and shoved up against the wall. She tried to see who had grabbed her and saw Bellatrix.

"Well, well, well... I haven't seen you around lately. Perhaps it was because I myself was too busy, but that doesn't matter. I doubt you care about what I've been doing, and where I've been all this time." Bellatrix replied cooly. She had her wand shoved at Lily's neck, waiting for the opportunity to mutter an incantation.Where she have been all that time? _Bellatrix... she was, gone? Why don't I remember that... I suppose I never really noticed her anywhere, unless she was glaring in my direction or having one of her confrontations like now. But she makes it sound as though she's been gone for so long... where was she?_

"No, I didn't think you would care, although I'm sure you are a little curious on the matter. I don't know why he's interested in you," Bellatrix replied suddenly. She had a faraway look on her face, and didn't seem to notice Lily there. It was as though she were thinking out loud without realizing it. Who was "he" that Bellatrix was referring to? "Its not as though you've got any real power. Not the way I do, he told me as much. But yet he still wants you there, with him, face to face. Perhaps he wants to be the one to do it, I don't really know. Frankly, I don't care. What I do know is that you have something he wants— a certain piece of information. He seems to think you know— I don't think you know anything myself, but the excuse to torture you is too tempting and I can't pass it up. So tell me, Lily Evans... what does the prophecy say?" Bellatrix asked. Lily gasped. What did Bellatrix know about the prophecy? They had only found out themselves recently— had she known all along?

"I-I-I don't k-know," Lily said. She was gasping for air as Bellatrix's wand pushed deeper into her throat. The pain was coming, and soon Lily knew it would become unbearable. Bellatrix's eyes gleamed.

"Liar!" she whispered. "Filthy, pathetic, mudblood!" Lily's vision was becoming blurred— she hadn't been able to breathe for quite some time now, and she was certain that any minute she would pass out. Surely it had to be more than Bellatrix's wand pressing into her throat. It was then that Lily realized Bellatrix was using a non verbal spell on her. Lily gasped, trying to breathe. How could Bellatrix expect her to tell her anything? Even if she did know, if she couldn't breathe then certainly she couldn't talk either.

"I... c...ca... can't b... bre... breathe!" Lily finally managed to say. Bellatrix narrowed her eyes and smiled.

"Good." Lily could see in her eyes that she was using another non verbal spell. What would it be this time, Lily wondered. Her wand was out of the question, as Bellatrix had grabbed it as well. Lily could only hope that someone would come. Bellatrix didn't even bother to cover Lily's mouth now, because she knew that Lily couldn't even speak quietly to her, let alone scream for help. Even if she did scream, they were so far away from any student that she wasn't sure anyone would hear. At least, not until it was too late.

—

James signed out the book he had found on Godric Gryffindor. He hadn't bothered to tell Sirius, Remus or even Peter why he was staying behind a little later in the library. They had all refrained from talking about the prophecy since Dumbledore had told them about it, and he wanted to do his own research. Maybe he could find a clue about a place Godric Gryffindor liked in Hogwarts. He knew it was a long shot, but what else could he do? He had caught Lily once already pointlessly looking around Hogwarts, and he knew that she would never find it that way. Even if they all did a thorough search of the castle, he doubted that they would find it. After all, the rumor of the prophecy had been going around for years— surely when it had originally started, Hogwarts would have been searched, stripped down to the last brick until they had come to the conclusion that it didn't even exist.

Although he knew that it was out of character for him to be reading while walking through the halls, he couldn't help it. The book was actually extremely interesting, and he was shocked to see how much Godric Gryffindor had endured throughout his life. It was James' seventh year at Hogwarts and he had still managed to take a wrong turn. Once he realized this, he began to turn around to head back the right way and go to the Common Room, but heard the very faint sound of someone speaking. He listened more closely and heard,

"Liar!" she whispered. "Filthy, pathetic, mudblood!" He grew curious and began to walk further down the hall. Why had that voice sound so familiar? It had to be a Slytherin, James reasoned. They were the only ones who used the term "mudblood". It wasn't until he heard the small sound that came next that he was worried.

"I... c...ca... can't b... bre... breathe!"

"Lily!" James breathed. He ran around the corner and saw Lily shoved up against the wall, unconscious now, by Bellatrix. He grabbed his wand and pointed it at Bellatrix. He muttered a hex and Bellatrix passed out. He walked over to Lily, grabbed her wand from Bellatrix's other hand, and picked Lily up carefully. He didn't know what Bellatrix had wanted with her, but he had a feeling that more had happened then a regular feud between rival houses.

Madame Pomfrey was shocked to see Lily and quickly lead James over to one of the empty beds in the Hospital Wing.

"Oh poor thing!" she said. "What on earth happened to her, Mr Potter?" she asked. James set her down on the bed.

"I don't know. I do know that she was cornered by another student, and she said something very forced and barely understandable. She said that she couldn't breathe." James glanced down at Lily. Had she fallen into sleep after passing out? Or was she still unconscious?

"Cornered by who?" Madame Pomfrey asked.

"... I couldn't see the person," James lied. "They were hooded. I began to say an incantation, but they ran off. I know we aren't supposed to use magic in the halls," James said carefully, "but I didn't think the person would run off and leave Lily there the way they did." Madame Pomfrey appeared doubtful of James story but said nothing. If he didn't want to tell her, it was his problem. The only thing she cared about was that Lily was brought back to her usual self.

"Well, it seems as if she'll be fine, I think she's only been knocked out from lack of air. We'll leave her here for the night to be sure, but she'll probably be out tomorrow. Thank you for bringing her— again," Madame Pomfrey replied.

—

"Where could she be?" Megan asked. She was smacking her gum and she could tell it was annoying Sirius. She smacked it even louder. "I mean," she replied in between smacks, "she was only going to look for James. And you said he stayed in the library a little while longer. That," she smacked again, "would have been the first place Lily would look." Sirius glared at her but didn't say anything. He wasn't going to let her know that it was bothering him, the way she smacked her gum. He didn't know why it should, he did it all the time. Perhaps it was because it was her. Or maybe Remus was rubbing off on him— after all, his homework was done before midnight on Sunday. It just wasn't right.

James entered the Common Room and they looked up and glanced behind him. There was no sign of Lily. Remus was about to ask where Lily was when James sat down across from Sirius.

"You have to do something about your cousin," he said. Sirius looked confused.

"Which—?" Megan smacked her gum and Sirius glared at her. "Which cousin?" he finished.

"Bellatrix!" James cried. "She cornered Lily and it was just chance I happened to take the wrong turn into that hallway. I heard her calling Lily... a foul name, and then Lily gasping for air. She got knocked out and I had to take her to the hospital wing. I even had to lie and tell Madame Pomfrey that I didn't know who did it, because I used one of Snape's spells on her."

"Snape's spells?" Megan asked.

"Yeah, Snape has this potions book, right, and we found it one time when he left it behind in Potions class. He's got all these spells scribbled inside that aren't actual spells, but they all work. Every single one of them. What's more is that he has shortcuts in all the potions in the book, and we tried it once on a quicker but complex potion— and it worked out PERFECT. Even Pete could follow it," Sirius said. "I'm really sorry James, but what can I do? Bellatrix and I aren't cousins in the traditional family sense— we're tied most unfortunately by blood, but we hardly act as cousins. In both of our minds, neither of us considers the other as a cousin, for different reasons. What makes you think I can do anything?" Sirius asked. James shrugged.

"I don't know... but Megan, Ali? Maybe you shouldn't let her go off on her own. Bellatrix had her wand right at Lily's throat, and I take it she used a spell on her because there's no way that the wand would make her pass out just by poking at her. At least not at the pressure Bellatrix had jabbed it at her. Besides," he said thoughtfully, "I think its happened before, which means it can happen again."

"What makes you think its happened before?" Ali asked.

"Just a gut feeling," James lied. Yes, lied. He knew for a fact it had happened before— it was probably in their second year at Hogwarts when he had first noticed that Lily was quiet. He'd pulled numerous pranks on her, and she hadn't said a word. He finally followed her one day and saw Bellatrix confront her. Back then, it hadn't been as serious as it seemed to be now. Just a verbal threat, no real force. James hadn't done anything... he didn't know why, because even though at the time he hadn't liked Lily, he still knew that he should have helped her.

"James..." Sirius said suddenly. "You're carrying... a _book?_"

**A/N:** Well another semi-long chapter for you, hope you enjoyed, and this story I think will get a little more on the "mysterious" side over the next few chapters. Anyone have any idea who the "he" was that Bellatrix mentioned? I'm sure if you thought _really _hard, you could tell. Oh yeah, she's in the seventh year as well. I don't know if we've learned thus far in the series how old she was in comparison to James and Lily, but if we have I don't remember it so she's in it now. Don't forget to review!


	10. More Arguments

**A/N:** Well, here's the new chapter. With it being a long weekend, I thought that I would try to get a chapter out for all my stories except Grand Theft Autumn which I have on hold for this weekend— during next week I will be working on it and I might have more than one chapter for it at that time. Anyways, thanks to "granny" who reviewed, sorry at the moment I can't remember the entire penname but I thought I'd mention you since it was a really nice review. Thanks!

**Disclaimer: **Harry Potter doesn't belong to me. Never did, never will.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Ten: More Arguments

"You might try it sometime," Remus replied. He grabbed the book from James and looked at it. "Godric Gryffindor's history? Perhaps you aren't a lost cause, James, although I have reason to believe there might never be hope for Sirius." Remus smiled when Sirius stood up defiantly.

"Hey Moony, I have my homework done and its _not_ Sunday," Sirius said. "I think that means there's hope for me." James put a hand on his shoulder and forced him to sit down.

"_Mate,_ don't defend yourself on an accusation like that! Its what you _want, _to be a lost cause. You aren't the type to be..." James faked a shudder. "_Proud_ of having your homework done." Sirius nodded.

"Yeah, yeah, your right! I'm not proud— I-I... I'm disgusted!" Sirius replied finally. Megan rolled her eyes and Ali just giggled. Sirius glared at Megan. "And just _what _did I say to make you think this was a matter you could roll your eyes about? It's a serious matter, no pun intended." Megan crossed her arms.

"Oh yeah, so serious. Its your bloody homework, get over yourself its either done or its not done, its not like you should be given some award either way. Unless your Remus and Lily— they tend to go over the edge with their homework and could probably use some award by now. Yes, I believe Lily has fairly earned the title "Book Worm," and Remus over there," Megan pointed and Remus looked up, slightly curious. "He's more than fairly earned the title of Book Worm as well, but they can't both have the same thing. Perhaps Book Wol– uh... never mind," Megan decided quietly under her breath. Remus saw Ali looking confused— he supposed she was the only one who didn't know he was a werewolf. Despite the fact that he was sure she would hate him, he decided to give her the benefit of the doubt— after all, Megan and Lily didn't care. James, Sirius, and Peter, they didn't care. _Dumbledore_ didn't care— so maybe Ali would be the same. Remus looked around. The Common Room had already cleared out as it was getting late. Most students had turned in early or were having their own party in their dorms.

"Ali... do you know why I'm in the Hospital Wing so much?" Remus asked finally. James looked up. Was this actually Remus _telling _someone that he was a werewolf? He had made everyone else figure it out on their own. Perhaps Remus liked Ali more than James had thought.

"I assume because you get sick a lot," Ali shrugged. "I never really gave it much thought. Why do you ask?"

"Because. I..." Remus sighed and looked away. That way, if she hated him, he'd never know what look she had on her face when he told her. "I'm a werewolf." he said finally. Ali gasped.

"You're a... a... oh Remus, I'm so sorry!" she replied. "I never knew! How did this... how did this happen?" she asked finally. Remus saw that James and Sirius had looked up then.

"I'll tell all of you— but not until Lily's out of the hospital wing. So," Remus replied after a few moments of silence, "how about we read this book?"

—

Lily awoke in the middle of the night. What had caused her to wake up so suddenly? _A shuffling noise, _Lily remembered. She had been half-asleep in the Hospital Wing when she had heard the shuffling noise— near her bed. She saw up immediately and looked around. There didn't seem to be anyone there, but yet... she had heard them. She knew she had. She heard a low voice begin to speak and she immediately laid back in her bed, closing her eyes. She tried to make it seem as though she were sleeping, and she breathed as quietly as she could even though her heart was pounding. Why? Because of what the voice was saying...

"_Master,"_ it said. _"We cannot talk here. It's too dangerous."_ There it was again, the sound of shuffling. Who was this person talking to? Who was... this man the voice called "Master"?

"_SILENCE!"_ a second voice, deeper, snakelike, boomed even though it was in a whisper. Lily couldn't help but jump; she only hoped these two people didn't notice.

"_Yes, Master, of course. What was it you wanted to speak with me about?"_ the first voice sounded scared, far from confident. There was silence— Lily was terrified of the silence, terrified that while she had her eyes clamped shut they were watching her. She didn't feel as though she was being watched, but then again, she rarely did.

"_The girl. The one on the bed. What is her name?" _the man called "Master" asked.

"_Lily. Lily Evans, master. A mudblood, however intelligent. What do you want with her?"_ the first voice asked.

"_I want the prophecy. I want you to wait until they find it, and then I want you to get it. I don't care how. Steal it from your pathetic bro—" _there was another sound, coming from just outside the Hospital Wing. A voice! Someone was coming.

"_Master, you must leave."_ the first voice replied in a hurry. There was that shuffling noise again— the swish of robes. Lily recognized it now. The sound of a window being thrown open was heard, and Lily heard the familiar sound of a broomstick leaving. _Of course!_ She realized. _You can't apparate or disapparate in the school. That must be how that man got here. He was definitely not a student. But... what about the other voice? A student,_ Lily thought. The voice that had possibly saved her was now beside her bed.

"Ouch! That was my foot you moron," whispered a girls voice. Lily grinned. Megan!

"Its not my fault you have clown sized feet!" And that was James, Lily could recognize his voice anywhere. But... they weren't there. Lily didn't see them.

"James? Megan?" Lily whispered into the darkness. Suddenly Megan and James appeared, basically from nowhere. She wrapped her arms around both of them. "Thank goodness the two of you came!" James was thankful that it was dark because his face must have turned a million shades of red— at least, he could feel his face burning.

"What's with the warm welcome?" Megan asked after Lily had released them. Lily looked around— even though her eyes were adjusted to the dark, she couldn't see if anyone else was still in there— mainly, the person who had been in there earlier talking to his "master".

"Is... is there anyone else in here?" Lily asked.

"You mean like Ali? She was afraid of getting caught wandering the halls, even with this moron's invisibility cloak. Remus is reading this book that the moron—"

"Do you have to keep calling me that?" James asked tiredly. Megan smiled.

"Of course! The truth and nothing but the truth, besides you've earned it. Oh and Sirius I believe had a date tonight— you know the type," Megan added rolling her eyes. "Peter's finishing up his homework— although he has to ask Remus often for help I'm sure," Megan added thoughtfully. "Anyways, none of them came. I didn't want to come with this moron, but he wouldn't let me come on my own." James looked away at that and didn't say anything.

"I didn't mean them," Lily said slowly. "Are you sure there's nobody, regardless of who, in here?" Lily asked. James looked up. "I think we passed someone on our way here but we didn't pay attention. Some guy, I didn't really look at his face. Was that who you meant?" James asked quietly. Perhaps Lily had a visit from some guy she liked...

"Yes! Well... before either of you came in here, I heard this shuffling noise. It was actually what had woke me. I sat up and looked around but soon laid back down because I heard two people speaking. One called the other "master" and he sounded as though he was... scared. I was terrified because they talked about ME. And... they know about the prophecy. Bellatrix does too," Lily added. Then she realized that neither of them probably knew that Bellatrix was obviously the reason that she had been put in the Hospital Wing. She opened her mouth to explain but James saved her the trouble.

"We know. Well, I knew, and then I told the others. I took a wrong turn—"

"He was _reading._ Honestly, Lils, I think your rubbing off on him!" Megan interrupted. James ignored her comment.

"I took a wrong turn and I saw Bellatrix had cornered you." James finished. Lily looked up at him confused.

"If you knew it was Bellatrix, why didn't you tell Madame Pomfrey? She said the person who brought me here, which I suppose must have been you, didn't see who the person was."

"Oh... well, why didn't you?" James countered. Megan rolled her eyes.

"He couldn't tell her because he had used an untested spell on Bellatrix to knock her out because she didn't plan on letting go of you anytime soon."

"James!" Lily cried. "You can't use an untested spell on people!" James shrugged.

"I'd rather test it on her than anyone. You weren't breathing, do you know how terrifying it is to hear you barely get out "I... c..c..can't... b... breath!"?" James asked. Lily smiled.

"Aww, you really do care," she teased. James flushed and looked away.

"Eww, if you guys are going to get all... like, lovey dovey on me... let me know now so I can spare myself and _leave_," Megan replied. This time Lily flushed and looked down at her hands. She had never noticed how very pale they seemed—

"She was only kidding..." James replied after recovering.

"I think I will go, if looks could kill..." Megan replied, as Lily was glaring daggers at her. "I'll be fine without the cloak, if I get caught, it will just be an excuse to hate Filch or his bloody cat more so I don't have a problem with that." Megan replied. Lily saw the chance to get back at her, and couldn't resist.

"You know, you and Sirius are a lot alike. You both love pranks and don't care if you get caught doing anything against the rules. Perhaps you two should consider—"

"DON'T EVEN SAY IT!" Megan shouted. She then lowered her voice, realizing that shouting might not have been the best idea. "Sirius Black is a two-headed PIG and he's the most obnoxious, smelly... its just not going to happen," she added quickly. Too quickly... Lily caught a strange look in Megan's eyes, and was about to ask about it when Megan ran out.

"Well," James said finally, "That went well."

"I... I really was only kidding, I— I couldn't care less about whether or not you cared about me!" Lily replied finally. She then felt bad for saying it. James had, for the past while, been nothing but nice to her. He didn't deserve that. "James, I..."

"Forget it, Evans." James replied. He got up and threw his cloak on. "I should have known better than to come here. Some people never grow up... funny, that was what you used to say to me. Yet now, I'm forced to say it to you." Lily heard his voice, but she didn't know where it was coming from. Did James feel better talking to her when he was invisible? Suddenly, she was furious. Her, immature? Who was the one who pulled mindless pranks all the time? Who was the one proud of the number of detentions they had?

"You don't even deserve to be Head Boy," Lily retorted. "Every time you get detention, your head grows thicker. I suppose after you finally couldn't hold it up on your head you decided to take a break from your pranking. Well James Potter, there's no deflating your thick head, so I guess your pranking days better be over unless you want to be squashed by your own head. And at least I don't need an invisibility cloak to tell someone what I think of them." James threw off his cloak from his head and glared at her.

"You think your so damn perfect Evans?" he asked finally. "Maybe you should take a look in the mirror. I might be immature at times, and yeah, I pull pranks. At least I don't hide how I am from people I care about. I've liked you since third year, but have you even showed you cared? No, you haven't. Can't you see that I tried to change for you? No, of course you can't, because where I have a huge head, you have a huge ego. You refuse to admit to anyone, even yourself that maybe, just maybe you have feelings for me. Deny it all you want, Lily Evans, because despite how much you try to hide it, I know you. More than you know yourself, clearly. And you know what? I'll always like you, because no matter how hard I try not to, I can't stop. So here's some advice for you— get used to it. We're going to be around each other a lot now that we know about this prophecy, and I'm not making it easy for you anymore. I've acted like I don't like you, around everyone, even you. Now, I guess I just don't care who knows, even if I am in love with the most idiotic witch at this school. You may be smart in all your classes, but I guess this is one place where you know nothing." James threw the cloak on his head, but brought it down again and turned to her. "Do me a favor, Evans, and stop acting nice to me. You think you don't have feelings for me? Prove it. I look forward to watching you realize that maybe for once I was right. As for those Transfiguration lessons I was going to help you with, forget it. Find someone else." James turned and left the Hospital Wing. Lily was seething with anger. The nerve of him! To say that _she_ had feelings for him— HIM! She didn't care about him, in any way. He was arrogant, two-face, obnoxious, conceited just... self-centered. Entirely. He didn't love her— he wanted her because he couldn't get her. That was the way it had always been. Once James realized there was someone at the school who didn't drool over him, he decided he wanted her. Well, that was just tough for him. Her, have feelings for him? Actually _care?_ _James couldn't have been farther from the truth,_ Lily told herself. _I don't care for him— what's there to like?_

**A/N:** Aww, and they were getting along so well! But hey, I couldn't have them just fall in love without a few bumps along the way. What kind of fanfiction writer would I be? Anyways, there was a bit of "mysteriousness" in here, not much just a bit with the two voices. I'm sure by now you know who the voice that belonged to "master" was— same as before. It was guessed to be Voldemort, and I have to say it was quite easy to work out if you actually thought about it. Considering we all know that Bellatrix was a Death Eater. But who else do we know was a Death Eater? Think hard about this— and in this case, I don't mean Peter. He hasn't gone down that road— yet. Don't forget to review. D


	11. Christmas Holidays Part 1

**A/N:** Well here's the next chapter just a little bit quicker than I intended--- Thursday, whoa, not hard to tell it was getting close to summer because I literally felt like DYING in the heat and that was when the sun WASN'T out. Anyways that meant Thursday night was REALLY hot because the sun was out a bit more before it got dark. So of course, I couldn't sleep--- so my mom let me stay home. YAY! Slept until 10:30 and then got woke up by a bloody mosquito--- how I hate them… anyways, here's the next chapter, I have a chapter done for all of my stories except Time Turner (nobody reviewed, and since I don't feel like updating at the moment I figured I'd wait either a) until someone reviewed, or b) until I felt like it) and I have three chapters for a new story, and I'm starting another new story. Yeah, I know, a lot, but for the first time I feel like I can handle it all, and I want to do these stories. After all, Hanging By A Moment won't be too long so I'll have it finished soon, then there's Grand Theft Autumn, it should be done after that sometime, so it will work out. Anyways, thanks bunches to those who reviewed! It means a lot, and--- MOSQUITO! Crap, lol I caught it and it slipped out of my fingers. AHH its on the wall--- there, squashed it. Sorry, they REALLY bug me they are too noisy and annoying. R & R.

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter doesn't belong to me--- so yeah…

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Eleven: Christmas Holidays Part 1

James stormed out of the Hospital Wing and had made it all the way back to the Common Room before he realized what Lily had said--- voices. Talking about her, and the prophecy. Even though he was mad at her, he couldn't stop his feelings for her from getting in the way.

"Damn…" he muttered. "It's not safe to leave that girl alone is it?" he sighed and was just trying to figure out what to do when Megan came out from the stairs. James jumped when he saw her, but she reminded him instantly of Lily as they were best friends, and he glared at her.

"Whoa," she replied, holding her hands up. "What's got you so angry?" she asked. She sat down next to him and he saw she had the book he had signed out--- apparently Remus had already finished it. James looked at the thickness of it and couldn't help but shake his head. Remus, even after all these years of knowing him, still didn't stop surprising him.

"Evans," he replied bitterly finally. Megan raised an eyebrow--- _Evans?_ It had been awhile since James had called Lily that.

"What happened?" she asked. James shook his head, telling her he didn't want to get into it but she made herself comfortable. "Might as well, I'm not going until you tell me." Megan added.

"We just had an argument--- you know how she was teasing me, and said "Aww, you really do care!" and you left?" James asked. Megan made a face.

"How can I forget…" she muttered.

"Well, after you left, she said she really had been kidding and that she didn't care whatsoever if I cared about her… then she was about to say something, but I cut her off and told her that some people just never grow up. Then she got mad and said that I didn't even deserve to be Head Boy because I enjoyed getting detentions, and every time I got one I was so proud that my head grew thicker and thicker. She told me that was why I had stopped pulling pranks, because it was too heavy to hold up and I didn't want to be squashed by it. Of course, that made me angry--- I stopped pulling pranks because…" James fell silent and Megan leaned forward.

"Because…?" she asked. James sighed and stood up.

"Because I knew what she thought of me--- that I was immature, arrogant, a bully. I told her I tried to change, for her. But she didn't care--- she never did care when it came to me. Whenever she starts to, something always happens. Like now. I told her that I'd never stop liking her, I've tried and I just can't stop. Every time I try, I fall more in love with her… as stupid as that sounds. I told her where I've got a big head, she's got a big ego and can't admit that maybe--- maybe she does care about me, more than she thinks. Then I just stormed off… I never even thought at all that she could be in danger, because of the people that were in there. I'm still… really, really mad at her, but that doesn't stop me from caring…" James sighed. "I wish it did…" he added softly. He realized he had been lost in thought for awhile and Megan was staring at him. He got up. "I'm… going to bed. Don't worry," he added. "I won't let my argument with Lily get in the way of this prophecy. The sooner we find it, and get whatever we're supposed to do done, the better." He ran up the stairs and Megan heard the door shut. She noticed James had left his invisibility cloak downstairs and decided she'd go back and see Lily.

---

Lily curled up in a ball in the Hospital Wing--- she was furious, but she knew it could have all been avoided if she hadn't tried to cover up when she acted as though she cared that he… liked her. Had she acted? No, and she knew it. They had become… almost friends. But she had to go and cover up everything and now, they were angry at each other. But was it a bad thing? She had told him exactly what she had once thought of him, and now he had done the same. Funny, how people only tell each other the hard truth when angry at one another.

Lily sat up again as she heard a shuffling noise. _No…_ she thought. _Please, don't let them be back…_ she was relieved when she saw Megan pull off the invisibility cloak. Judging by the look on Megan's face, she had encountered James and knew they had an argument.

"I don't want to talk about it," Lily replied harshly. Megan looked hurt, and Lily rushed to apologize. "I'm sorry, Megan… I guess I'm getting everyone mad at me tonight. But… ask Ja---" Lily sighed. "Ask Potter if you want to know."

"I already did. He wasn't going to tell me, but… I forced it out of him, and he told me. Lily… we won't talk about it, if you don't want. But since you and James clearly didn't talk about those visitors tonight I thought I would. We did see a guy walk out of here, but he had a hood on and we couldn't see his face. He was shorter than James, not that it helps much to know that. What did they say?" Megan asked. Lily quickly told Megan everything that they had said, and Megan lifted her legs up and held them close to her. (Megan is sitting on a bed, for those wondering)

"I guess this is real, now." Megan replied softly. Lily nodded.

"Guess so…" she agreed.

"Well… be careful, Lils. We'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she asked. Lily nodded and after she thought Megan had left, she began crying. She didn't know why--- but once she started, she couldn't stop. Megan however hadn't left, and turned away. Perhaps James had been right--- maybe Lily did care about him.

---

The next day when Lily was let out of the Hospital Wing, she saw a lot of girls were glaring at her. She felt very awkward and rushed to the Common Room and saw that most girls there too were glaring at her. She saw Ali who was looking worried and asked her what was up.

"Well, everyone knows James likes you now…" she replied. "Before he used to talk quietly about it when no one was around, now he just talks to Remus and Sirius whenever, wherever. They all know you guys argued." She added. Lily walked over to James and glared at him.

"What the hell is your problem?" she asked him. He looked up at her and for a moment she noticed the pain hiding behind his hazel eyes. It was soon replaced with anger.

"I told you, Evans--- I'm not making it easy for you anymore. Even when I did you still acted as though you hated me, so I'm not going to worry about who might overhear anything I say. Now anyways, Remus what did you learn from that book?" James asked.

"Well, there's a few places rumored around here to be places Godric Gryffindor liked to go, to... hang out, basically. I think first though, over the Christmas Holidays, we should look around in the Common Room. I say the holidays because that's when there will be literally no people other than us here— I've asked around, everyone's already signed up to go home for the holidays, so the seven of us will have to stay here and search on our own then. It will be easier, we'll attract less attention." Remus added. Lily glared once at James before telling Remus that she'd make sure that Megan and Ali knew of that and left. James saw her leave and stared at the fire angrily. _Stupid Evans... why couldn't I just tell myself to hate you forever and have it come true?_ He asked himself. He knew he wouldn't get an answer— it was a rhetorical question anyways.

Remus looked over at Lily and then whispered to James, "Don't you think this is getting a bit out of hand? I mean, I understand you two are mad at each other, but honestly do the rest of us need to deal with it?" he asked. "If you like Lily so much, why can't you just tell her you're sorry?" Remus asked.

"Because I'm not sorry. She thinks she's so perfect, that she doesn't like me, well fine, but I won't apologize for calling her immature because at that moment that's exactly what she was. Can we just focus on this prophecy?" James asked. "I'd rather not get into a discussion about her." Remus shrugged.

"Sure, James, whatever you say. Come on, its almost lunch, we might as well head for the Great Hall." Remus dragged James out of the Common Room, leaving Peter and Sirius behind. James began to protest but Remus dragged him over to the broom closet and dragged him inside.

"Listen James, I know Lily better than you do when it comes to you. No, wait, listen!" Remus exclaimed when James attempted to leave. "She did notice that you were changing, she asked me about it every day! First she asked me what "Potter" thought he was doing. Soon she cut back on the last name business and called you James. She started to sound like... well like she might like you at least as a friend. She told me herself she was glad you were going to tutor her in Transfiguration, because she needed the help and she knew you were really good at it. How often would she have said that before?" Remus asked. James looked down.

"Not often..." he replied slowly.

"Try never. And maybe if you hadn't interrupted her last night, you would have seen she was trying to apologize!" Remus shouted. James looked up.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"Because she told me that when I visited her at the Hospital Wing. She said she had felt terrible about saying that because in the past while you had been so nice to her, and then you jumped at her and called her immature and so she got mad and forgot anything regarding an apology. You know yourself that it's going to be hard to work together if the two of you are mad. I don't care if you have to just call a truce because she's beyond forgiving you, the two of you have got to do something before it's too late." Remus left, and James sat down on the ground to be left alone with his thoughts. Ever since he had started liking Lily, it had all been a problem.

—

Over the next week, even after what Remus had said, things became worse between Lily and James. James no longer acted the way he had before, and he had even attempted to speak to her, but she was beyond speaking. He didn't know what to do— if she didn't allow him to talk to her, how could he ever apologize? It was then that he decided that he was just going to have to go get her a Christmas present she'd really like, and send it to her along with a letter. Maybe then she'd at least read it to see who had given her the gift. He wouldn't get into too much detail— he'd just say two words: I'm sorry. Then if she stayed mad at him, well, he had tried. But maybe she wouldn't... he hoped so much that she wouldn't. After all, he liked her— truly, REALLY liked her. And there was nothing worse than knowing the person you loved seemed to hate your guts. She had said she could never hate him— he wondered if she remembered that at all.

So, James spent the start of the holidays looking for the perfect gift for Lily— he had even left the school property, even though he knew it was against the rules. Finally, he found it. He wrapped it up carefully and grabbed a piece of parchment.

_Lily—_

_I'm sorry. _

He signed no name— he knew she would know it was from him. He sent it off with his owl and sat down where he stood. _Please forgive me..._ he thought to himself. _I don't know what I'll do if you hate me._

**A/N:** Well a little short but there you have it! This chapter I tried to focus a little more on the argument, next chapter I'll get into the argument and then hopefully the prophecy again. Don't forget to review!


	12. Christmas Holidays Part 2

**A/N:** I'm really sorry I haven't updated for awhile, basically, I didn't update any of my stories but one for awhile and then when I started this chapter, the document wouldn't upload, none of mine would, I finally got it to work so it's all good, and here's the next chapter. Thanks to those who reviewed, and hopefully this chapter will be at least semi-good so I'll get another review from someone.

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Twelve: Christmas Holidays Part 2

That night, Lily was sitting in the girls dorm. The holidays had already started, and the students had all gone home to spend it with their families. Only Megan, Ali, Remus, Peter, Sirius, James and herself had stayed behind that year, which was extremely convenient for them as they could spend a lot of time searching the Common Room, if not for the prophecy, at least for something that might hint towards the prophecy.

She was just finishing up her holiday homework from Charms class when she heard an owl pecking on the window. She rushed over and opened it, and saw a beautiful owl with a parcel attached to it. She untied it from the birds claws, and the owl flew off into the night— probably to hunt, Lily thought to herself. She saw a note, and read it first.

_Lily—_

_I'm sorry._

She knew immediately that James had sent this... she knew she should just throw it away, but curiosity got the better of her, and she decided she could at the very least see what he had gotten her. She opened the wrapped parcel, and she saw inside there was an emerald green jeweled charm bracelet, with several charms on it. One of a book, one of a lion like the Gryffindor lion, one of a moon, one of a lily, and... one of what appeared to be a stag. She put it on, and she felt guilty. _I can't accept this gift! James, why do you always buy me gifts like this? I mean... _she tried not to think too much on it. Right now, she had to find James. She looked out her window, and saw snow being tossed in the air— yet there was nobody there. It had to be James, she decided. After all, he probably had snuck out with his Invisibility Cloak, and she was going to make him take the gift back.

—

James tossed snow into the air, without caring who saw. He was under his Invisibility Cloak anyway, so what did it matter? People who did see would just think that it was some ghost or poltergeist, which wasn't so far-fetched considering Hogwarts was full of ghosts and was home of its very own Poltergeist, Peeves.

It wasn't until he heard the distinct sound of crunching snow coming from behind him that he stopped tossing snow in the air. He attempted to leave, but was grabbed by someone and his cloak removed. He looked at who had caught him, and saw Lily. He also noticed she had her gift in her hands, and he sighed. So, she had decided to come and talk to him...

"James, I can't take this." Lily replied softly. She gave him the charm bracelet back, and he held onto it, staring absentmindedly at the charms on it. He looked up at her, realizing something.

"James? What happened to "Potter", Lily?" he asked her. She backed away a few steps.

"I... what happened to Evans, James?" she retorted. He rolled his eyes.

"Still the same, I see. Well, you can keep this," he replied, forcing the bracelet back into her hands. "I won't take it back, it was a Christmas gift for you," he told her. "I... Lily, before you run off never to talk to me again, I really just wanted to tell you I am sorry. I went to far with what I said to you, and I didn't mean half of it." he told her. Lily began walking over to a tree and climbed up to the first branch so she could sit somewhere that wasn't covered in snow. James soon followed, but sat on a different branch on the other side of the tree.

"The thing is James, you did mean it." she replied, so quietly that James had to strain just to hear. "And... d-do you really t-t-think that I l-l-like you?" she asked. Her voice was shaking, and James realized she was cold. He climbed over to the branch she was on and put his winter cloak on around her. He had one arm reached around her and he didn't move it, and she didn't tell him to.

"I don't know, Lily." he replied honestly. "I wish you did, but only you know for sure." he replied finally. She looked up at him.

"Why do you like me?" she asked him. "I mean, face it James, you have basically the large majority of the female population after you, so why me?" James looked up and saw that it had begun snowing outside, and he shrugged.

"Lily... haven't you ever been in love before?" he asked her suddenly. She looked up at him, startled. _In love? So James is... flat out... in love with me. He doesn't even get awkward about it now, just states it as it is— a fact. _

"I don't think so," she replied honestly. "I mean, I've never really bothered having an interest in guys. I mean I'll admit to thinking a few were attractive, but even a married woman does that, so I highly doubt that counts." Lily replied.

"Oh... well, Lily, love isn't something you can control. Sometimes, you fall for someone because of their personality, other times, it just happens and sometimes the person you've fallen for is someone whose so stupid at times that you wonder how you could ever like them, and sometimes you feel as if you hate them so much yet at the same time, you love them."

"Which one are you struggling with?" she asked him. He smiled at her.

"Personality, I think." he replied. "Funny, clever, sweet, fiery at other times. And I can't forget... beautiful," he replied softly. Lily felt a strange sensation in her stomach, and she looked at James who was staring at her with such emotion, such... love, she realized.

"I... James, I..." Lily stopped talking. What was she trying to say? She was barely sure herself. Finally, barely realizing herself what she was doing, she leaned forward and pressed her lips against James'. He seemed startled, at first, by this sudden act, but soon after recovering from his earlier state of confusion, he had one arm wrapped around her, the other on her shoulder, and kissed her back. Finally, after a few minutes, they broke apart, and Lily stared down at the ground. James smiled at her, but he was still stunned.

"Lily..." he began. He didn't know what to say. Lily jumped down to the ground, and James followed her. "Lily, wait!" he called after her as she began running away. He saw her step on a patch of ice, not realizing it was there as it was covered by a thin layer of snow, and she fell. He ran over to her and knelt down beside her, concern etched on his face. He was just about to ask her if she was okay, when she burst out laughing.

"Are you okay?" he asked her uncertainly. She closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Finally she sat up, and stared out across Hogwarts Grounds.

"Never been better," she replied. She realized that the charm bracelet he had given her was still in her hand and she struggled with it, attempting to put it on. James grabbed her hand carefully and snapped the bracelet onto her wrist. She looked up at him, feeling suddenly very shy. Why had she kissed him when they had been sitting on the branch in the tree? Had he been right... did she actually like him? _You must, _Lily told herself. _You kissed him, and you enjoyed it this time. You know you did..._ she sighed to herself. She had enjoyed kissing him, and as she looked up at him now she felt the urge to do so again, but she didn't. James stood up and held out his hand to help her up. She grabbed it gratefully, and he pulled her up, but once she got on to her feet she began sliding on the ice and fell against him. She gulped and stared up at him as he lowered her head down onto her shoulder.

"Lily..." he replied softly into her ear, "I... I know you already know this, but... I love you." he told her. Lily's head began spinning and she closed her eyes, hoping it would help. "And..." James continued, hoping his instincts were right, "I was wondering if maybe you wanted to go to Hogsmeade, with me... you know, next weekend?" he closed his eyes, hoping he hadn't somehow ruined this moment he was sharing with Lily. Lily was silent for so long that James was sure he had somehow upset her, and he let go of her and started to move away, but she smiled at him.

"I guess I could," she replied.

—

When Lily returned to the girl's dorm, she was stunned with herself, surprised, and shocked at what had just happened. She had gone to James originally to tell him he couldn't just buy her forgiveness and send a little sorry note and expect everything to be just fine. Yet, once she had neared him, everything had just... changed. Instead of being mean, she was kind, and told him she couldn't possibly accept his gift. And what exactly had she been thinking, by kissing him? She almost wished he had kissed her first instead, because at least then she could explain away why she had kissed him back— like, she had been startled, or it was just instinct until she realized it was James and not some regular human being she might actually want to kiss. Yet she had kissed him first, and there was no way she could blame him for that. And she definitely couldn't blame him for her agreeing to go with him to Hogsmeade. She sat on her bed and pulled her knees close to her, daydreaming to herself.

Megan and Ali had been in Dumbledore's office, telling him that the seven of them altogether had decided to stay at Hogwarts to do some searching around for some hint towards the prophecy, while Hogwarts was a little less crowded, and so they had just got into the girls dormitory when they saw Lily on her bed, a dazed expression on her face.

"Lils? What's wrong?" Megan asked her. Lily jumped, startled to hear the sound of someone speaking. She had been lost in her own world, and hadn't heard Megan or Ali come into the dormitory. Lily moved onto her stomach and sighed.

"Nothing..." she replied. She wasn't really lying— nothing was _wrong._ She was just confused about how she suddenly was thinking about James more than she normally would have liked. It didn't make any sense to her whatsoever.

"Are you sure? You seem to be... well, lately you've just been moping around here endlessly for no given reason, and now all of a sudden you seem happy and... did something happen?" Megan asked. Ali moved past Megan and sat down on the bed next to Lily's. She felt Lily's head, as if seeing if she had a fever.

"You don't feel warm... and you don't _look_ sick," she replied, worried. Megan sat down next to her and rolled her eyes.

"Of course she doesn't look sick, she's not! She's going to tell us what happened, aren't you Lily?" she asked. Lily closed her eyes, and sighed.

"There's nothing wrong, and no, I'm not sick. Wait, did I really mope around here?" Lily asked suddenly. Both Megan and Ali nodded.

"When you weren't arguing or shouting about James, yeah, you moped around. And before you ask, yes, you seem happy now." Megan replied impatiently when she saw Lily open her mouth again to speak. "Now tell us what happened!" Megan exclaimed.

"Well, I... I sort of agreed to go to Hogsmeade with James," Lily started.

"I thought he had said he would never ask you out again, what made him change his mind? Especially when you were both mad at each other!" Ali asked.

"Forget that, why would you say yes if you were so mad at him?" Megan asked.

"Well, I said yes because... I don't know, I just did. And I could be wrong, but I think it's safe to say that he asked me out again because I... well, see, I sort of kissed him.." Lily replied. Megan and Ali's jaws both dropped.

"WHAT?"

—

"WHAT?"

"Keep your voice down, Sirius!" James replied, covering his friends mouth. "It's not that big of a deal," he replied untruthfully. Sirius smacked himself on the head. They were sitting in the Common Room, waiting for Remus to get back. He had gone to the Hospital Wing for a moment, after being convinced by Sirius, James and Peter (before James had gone outside) that he was looking very pale and sickly a bit too long after the full moon and that he should go see Madame Pomfrey in case he had caught a cold. So, after James had returned from outside, Lily had run up the stairs into the girls dorm, and James had sat down on the couch in front of the fire, still not believing that the earlier events had actually happened. That was when Sirius had found him, and forced James to tell him what had happened.

"Not that big of a deal?" Sirius whispered. "She kissed you, on her own! And she agreed to go out with you," Sirius added, still as quietly as he could manage considering he felt like shouting even more. James grinned and glanced at the common room entrance, waiting for Remus to appear hopefully sometime soon.

"Okay, so it IS a big deal." James admitted. "I just wanted to say something to quiet you down a bit," James added. Just then, Remus walked in through the Gryffindor Common Room entrance, and the portrait closed. Swearing was heard from beyond the portrait, as clearly Remus had awoken the Fat Lady to get inside of the Common Room. Remus sat down.

"She said that I'm just feeling a bit peaky after the full moon still, but that I should let her know if after two or three days, this keeps it up. She'll give me a cold cure just in case at that time, since it won't harm me if I'm not sick and if I am it will make me feel better." Remus replied. He saw the startled expression on Sirius' face, the dazed expression on James', and immediately realized there was something going on that he had missed. Sighing, he asked, "So what did I miss while I was gone?"

"Well, for starters, Evans totally snogged James just a few minutes ago," Sirius replied. "Oh and let's not forget that Prongsie here's dating her now, they're going to Hogsmeade next weekend— _together._" Sirius replied. Remus smiled.

"So what happened to change her mind, James?" he asked. James shrugged.

"I... I don't know. What I said to her, maybe? Or maybe she just realized she... liked me..." James replied hopefully. Sirius patted him on the back.

"I don't think you have to worry about that, mate, I'm pretty sure she likes you. If she didn't, there's no way she would have ever kissed you, period. Well, gentlemen, I say we go to bed, and Prongs to warn you, I will smother you with a pillow if you start saying Evans name in your sleep. Sound good?" Sirius replied. James grinned.

"Whatever you say, Sirius."

—

_Lily looked around where she was, and saw that she was in a strange room. Where was she? She turned and saw James on the ground, unconscious, and she ran to him. She kept running, but the more she ran towards him, the further away he seemed to be from her. She stopped finally, as she saw the ground fall out from under her. They were both falling, and she couldn't save him... _

"_JAMES!"_

Lily awoke, scared. She looked around and saw she was in her room, perfectly safe. There was no dangers threatening her nearby. She thought of the prophecy, of the strange men that had been in the Hospital Wing, and began to wonder just how dangerous this prophecy might actually end up being before they even found it.

**A/N:** Well I realize this wasn't so much about the prophecy but that was because, -gasp!- Lily and James are together now! Don't worry, I won't be making them horribly mushy throughout the rest of the story because that would completely take away from the main point at this time in the story— the prophecy. Granted, overall this story is about James and Lily, but at this moment the prophecy is what they're focusing on and next chapter we will continue with the prophecy. R&R, hope you enjoyed, and I'm off to update another story.


	13. Christmas Holidays Part 3

**A/N:** Sorry for not updating, I won't give you any excuses, but I will say that it was NOT me discontinuing this story— I stopped updating a lot of my older fanfictions, and just started to get back into it now since I'm giving my newer ones a bit of a break, considering I'd update them several times a DAY. Anyways, here's the newest chapter, I'll try and make it pretty good considering I really should have updated a little more often. Hopefully you'll forgive me... lol. R&R.

**Disclaimer:** As usual, Harry Potter doesn't belong to me.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Thirteen: The Christmas Holidays Part 3

For the few students that had remained at Hogwarts over the holidays, the news that Lily had finally agreed to go out with James flew around the school, and soon even those students at home with their families knew that they were going out. James received many letters from the girls of his fanclub, writing words of sorrow and despair at the fact that he had chosen Lily out of all the available girls who attended Hogwarts. Lily herself received hate mail from the very same girls, being told that James was only dating her because he hadn't yet. Lily ignored all of this however, and told herself that James had liked her too long for that to be the case— _and if that is the case, I know enough spells to hex him until he begs for forgiveness, and until he decides to become a hermit who never dates again. _Lily thought, amused.

Even though they were now dating, they didn't make out in public, especially around their friends— they didn't get disgustingly mushy and tell each other how much they cared for each other, after all, they were only going on one date that coming weekend, Lily had agreed to no more at the current time. Every now and then, when it came to searching for the prophecy and they decided to split up, Sirius and Megan would plot against Lily and James and make sure they were paired together— just so they had some privacy every now and then.

They had so far had no luck in finding the prophecy, and every time they asked Dumbledore about it, he said the same thing to them over and over— he couldn't help them any further because he was also in the dark about the whereabouts of the prophecy, and besides that, it was theirs to find.

So, they were all sitting in the common room, relaxing when they knew that they didn't have much time left to find the prophecy. It was their last year at Hogwarts, and if they didn't find it soon, they never would. _Is it that big of a deal?_ Lily thought, staring into the flames in the fireplace. _I mean, we don't even know what this prophecy says... we just know that it involves us. What if it's something stupid that we don't even have to do? But... Dumbledore wouldn't have mentioned it to us if it wasn't important. He might not know what it says word for word, but he must have some idea. Is he hiding something from us? And if he is... why? _Lily sighed, deciding that it would be best if she didn't attempt to figure it out.

"We've been looking for the prophecy for over a week now," Megan replied gloomily. "And still— nothing! I'm beginning to think it doesn't even exist and that it's just some stupid test Dumbledore thought up." she added.

"Oh no, Dumbledore wouldn't do that!" Ali exclaimed. She turned away from her conversation with Remus and faced Megan. "You can't believe that," Megan looked up at her, and opened her mouth to speak but Sirius got there first.

"Dumbledore's mental... who knows what he'd do." Sirius mumbled. Megan glared at him for interrupting, but softened her expression and nodded in agreement.

"You know what he said last night at dinner, don't you? Try and tell me he's not mental," Megan added. Lily, James and Remus stayed silent in the conversation.

"Let's not focus on whether or not Dumbledore is mental, alright?" James replied quietly. They all turned to look at him, sure that he was going to continue. "Where _haven't_ we searched for the prophecy?" he asked. Remus closed the book that he was reading and set it down.

"Well... it would be easier to say where we have searched. The common room, the Great Hall, Dumbledore's office, with his permission of course." Remus added.

"Don't forget the secret passageways," Sirius added.

"Or the classrooms." Lily spoke up. They all suddenly groaned in frustration. The school was so enormous, how could the possibly find it before the holidays were over? Soon, Christmas would be over, the students would have returned from their homes, and classes would start again. They'd be forced to focus on their homework and if they were spotted looking around everywhere, they probably would appear strange to the students and questions would be asked.

"Well... there's always the bathrooms," Lily suggested finally, after everyone had stopped speaking. "It's unlikely, but if we searched there it might give us time to think properly of where it could be hidden, and then we can cross it off of our places to look."

"I never realized how big this school was," Megan piped up. "Some of the hallways I didn't even know existed, and we're supposed to find a prophecy that's been hidden hundreds of years, that nobody's been able to find!" Sirius, James and Remus exchanged glances before sighing. Sirius ran up the stairs to the boys dormitory, leaving behind three very confused girls. Lily opened her mouth to speak, but James cut her off.

"You'll find out," he told her softly. Lily bit her lip and nodded, but every now and then she'd glance at the stairs to see if Sirius was coming.

Meanwhile, Sirius, who was upstairs searching for the Marauder's Map, swore under his breath. Where was it? He was sure that James had left it in his trunk, but it wasn't anywhere to be found. _We just used it not that long ago when we went off with Remus... it SHOULD be here! _Sirius lifted up shirt from the floor and saw the map underneath it. He grabbed it and took it downstairs, placing it on the table.

When he placed the blank piece of parchment on the table in front of them, the girls thought that he was barking mad. Why spend all of that time to search for a blank piece of parchment? If he needed it that bad, they'd have gladly gave him some.

"Sirius," Lily began, "What—?" Sirius held up his hand, showing that she should keep quiet. Pulling his wand out of his back pocket, he tapped the piece of parchment.

"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he replied. Lily and Megan exchanged a glance and burst out laughing; even Ali managed an enormous smile.

"He's finally done it," Megan replied, shaking her head sadly.

"Done what?" Lily asked her.

"He's gone bloody mad." Megan exclaimed. Sirius glared at her and pretended to laugh.

"Haha, very funny Winters. I'm not bloody mad, look," Sirius shoved the parchment under her nose, and she gasped. On it was what appeared to be a map, with tons of dots all over the place— not as many as there would be had it not been the holidays, since there weren't as many students at the school.

"What is this?" Lily asked, taking a closer look. Ali slid to the edge of her seat and leaned over Lily to see it.

"Sirius, why did you bring that?" Remus asked.

"It might help us... we can see the entire school, so we'll know where we haven't searched." James replied slowly, catching on to what Sirius was doing. Sirius nodded and put the map back on the table.

"Exactly! Of course, it can't help us entirely..." he added. "It only has the places we know about marked here, and even after almost a full seven years here, we still don't know the entire school," Lily's head shot up.

"You mean to tell me that... the three of you... created this?" she asked. She seemed stunned. _That's difficult magic... I don't even know if I could charm it like that... but... this must be breaking nearly all of the rules._

"Four of us, actually. Pete helped too, although he didn't do the spellwork— that was mostly courtesy of Remus here, we helped by telling him where everything was." James told them. Lily's gaze met his but they both quickly looked away. Lily cleared her throat.

"So... how long did it take to make this?" she asked, trying not to appear too interested— after all, she refused to break the rules unless absolutely necessary. Curiosity... wasn't breaking the rules... was it?

"Well you have to keep in mind that this school is enormous... it took most of our fourth year to start it, and over the years we added whatever we discovered to it. It wasn't until sixth year that Remus learned how to plot every student on here— nasty bit of spell work," James added.

"Well... you must be breaking almost all of the rules by having this, James!" Lily scolded. "How could you— ALL of you— live with that?" she demanded.

"...It's... only breaking the rules... if we get caught. And we won't. Don't worry about it, and besides, its lucky we have it." James told her. "Uh, listen... why don't Lily and I go— look in the library for something about Gryffindor? Megan and Ali can search the girls washrooms, and Sirius, you and Remus search the guys washrooms. At least, the best you can... maybe there'll be something in the walls. And meet us in the library when you're done," James added. Remus and Sirius exchanged an amused glance.

"So you and Lily will just be going to the library?" Remus replied quietly. James looked back at him confused and nodded.

"No... stopping near any broom closets to ah, snog the breath out of each other?" Sirius asked. Lily grabbed a pillow from the end of the couch and threw it at him.

"Oh shove off!" she told him. "Our _only _stop is the library, we can switch up the parties if you'd like. Perhaps you and Megan could go to the library and _snog_ the breath out of each other." Lily retorted. Megan, at hearing this, turned to her, furious.

"As if I'd ever snog that pig!" she shouted. Sirius turned to her.

"You snogged that moron from Ravenclaw," Sirius accused. "What's the difference?" He suddenly realized what he had said, and appeared stunned by it. "I mean... well, just that..."

"You sounded almost... _jealous..._ Padfoot. That's not like you!" James replied in awe. Sirius shrugged it off.

"Whatever. Come on, Remmy, let's go." Sirius replied, using his nickname for Remus. Remus got up and grinned at James before walking off. Megan and Ali waited until Sirius and Remus had gone through the portrait entrance.

"What was that all about?" Lily asked, as she and James walked towards the Common Room entrance. James shrugged.

"Who knows? Let's not focus on it. Come on, let's get to the library— they'll probably be spying on us first to see if we even go there, so we should hurry." Lily nodded and they walked to the library.

—

Dumbledore rummaged through the papers on his desk, searching for something. He didn't hear the gentle tapping on his window, but when a gust of wind blew them open— as well as blowing the papers off his desk— he noticed a wizard floating on a broomstick at his window.

"Dumbledore, it's been awhile." the mysterious man replied. Dumbledore's eyes narrowed.

"Yes, it has indeed. What brings you here, at this hour?" he asked. The man climbed in through the window and hopped off of his broom, leaning it against the castle wall inside of Dumbledore's office.

"I won't waste your time, Dumbledore, so let's get straight to the point, shall we? You have told, I hope, the students about the prophecy?" the man asked. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"No, I have not." he replied. "Nor do I intend to." This answer seemed to surprise the man, who jumped back, stunned.

"You must tell them! They need to know that they're involved— who knows what this prophecy..."

"Ah, you mean the seven students of which the prophecy involves? My mistake," Dumbledore replied gently. "Yes, they have been informed, and I assure you that even now they are searching for the prophecy." Dumbledore told him. The man looked back at him, clearly confused.

"But you said..."

"Ah, a simple case of misunderstanding! I had assumed you meant the entire student population at the school, which in that case, no, they have not been informed. Is that all you came here for? I'm rather busy at the moment, and this is not the greatest—"

"No, that is not all I'm here for. The news has just reached us... I'm terribly sorry, but the news of another murder has reached those of us at the Ministry. It will be in every newspaper across the world by tomorrow morning— by the end of the holidays, there won't be a soul who won't know." he added gravely. Dumbledore, who had been standing, hoping the unwanted visitor would leave, now sat down and poured two cups of brandy.

"Know what?" Dumbledore asked finally, handing the brandy to the man. The mysterious visitor took a sip of his brandy, before speaking again.

"That Lily Evan's parents were murdered tonight by You-Know-Who."

**A/N:** Uh oh... poor Lily has now become an orphan. Sorry, tried to bring the prophecy up a bit more in this chapter and hopefully I did enough for now, but I didn't really have any particular plans for this chapter so I just went with the flow this time. A bit of a short chapter but I do want to try to make updates a little more frequently than it has been, so hopefully you'll see another update from me soon. R&R.


	14. Christmas Holidays Part 4

**A/N:** It has been way too long since I last updated. I could go into a long list of excuses, but instead I'm just going to say I'm genuinely sorry, I dropped a lot of my stories for awhile, I hope anyone reading this will forgive me to some extent for the enormous delay, and here's the newest chapter of A Marauder's Tale (which shall be updated at a more regular basis once again as will my other stories.)

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter belongs to J.K Rowling and seens how I'm not her, that means I own nothing but the odd original character thrown in this story. It's a _fan_fiction for a reason, you know.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Fourteen: The Christmas Holidays Part 4

James and Lily arrived at the library rather quickly, and, once sure that Madam Pince was nowhere nearby, James lead her to one of the more private sections of the library. He had brought his bag with him, and he pulled out the book on Godric Gryffindor that he had signed out — again.

"Okay, so let's go through these books," James replied, indicating the pile of books Lily had gathered as he set up their research area, "And write down anything that seems to be the slightest bit useful. And — Lily, is something wrong?" James asked suddenly, noticing that she was staring at him strangely. She appeared startled that he had noticed, and shook her head wildly.

"N-no! Nothing!" She exclaimed rather quickly. James raised his eyebrows but didn't push the subject any further. He grabbed a quill and handed it to her, and she muttered a quiet 'thank-you' and set to reading. James was a few chapters in when he suddenly got the urge to look at her, and he did — until she realized this.

"Erm, sorry, Lily," James replied feebly, looking back at his book. "I just..." he stopped when he realized that Dumbledore was standing in front of them now, looking very gravely at them through his half-moon spectacles. "Professor!" James breathed. "What brings you here to the library?" James asked.

"Miss Evans, I must speak with you in private. I'm sorry Mr Potter, this is not a matter of the prophecy, but a personal matter to Miss Evans specifically. She may tell you when she returns if she wishes, but for now I think it best if — yes, very well then." Dumbledore stopped speaking as Lily stood up to follow him. She looked suddenly very pale, and James felt a pain in his chest — she was worried. Scared. And he'd have to stay here...

"It's alright, Professor." James replied finally. "I... I can keep doing this research while you're gone." James picked up the book to prove his point and continued reading it. Once he was sure that they were no longer watching him, James looked up over his book and saw they were gone.

—

Lily heard Professor Dumbledore mutter his password to the gargoyle, and the magical stairs appeared to take her up to his office. Dumbledore threw open the double doors and sat at the chair behind his desk. He indicated the chairs set out and Lily sat down.

"Professor, why is it that you've called me here?" Lily asked him finally. Professor Dumbledore looked off to the window at the far side of his office, and remained silent. He handed her a copy of the muggle newspaper that would be printed and released the next day.

"I am very sorry, Lillian Evans." Professor Dumbledore replied quietly. Confused, terrified and worried, Lily threw the newspaper open and began looking through it for anything significant. Bridge collapsing, fund raising going on – there was nothing. She looked up at Professor Dumbledore, confused.

"But sir, there's nothing —"

"Bridge collapsing, Miss Evans. Do you truly believe this is the cause of it not being built properly, of it rusting? No. It is, I believe very strongly, the Dark Lord — the one known as Lord Voldemort. He is a known muggle killer. He, I believe, knows of this prophecy — he knows who it involves. And, Miss Evans," He looked away this time, and Lily felt a weight drop in her stomach. "Tonight, he went to find your parents. And — I'm very sorry," he added again, "But... your parents have been murdered."

Lily sat there, very still, very quiet. This knowledge had not yet registered to her — her parents couldn't be dead. They were on their way to Peru, for the holidays! Their flight would leave the next day, and... and... they weren't dead. They couldn't be.

And yet, as Lily looked back at Dumbledore's grave expression, she knew he was not lying. This was not a nightmare she was having — she would not wake up from it. It was reality. Her parents were dead — gone, forever.

"Miss Evans, if I —" Dumbledore began, but Lily shook her head furiously. Tears began flowing down her face, and finally, she couldn't take it anymore. She needed out, she couldn't stay inside his office any longer. The more she sat in the arm chair, the more the walls seemed to be closing in, taking away all of the oxygen, taking away her ability to breathe. And all over again, she remembered things she regretted so much — getting mad at them for treating Petunia differently, getting mad at them for allowing Petunia to have over friends, but never, ever her. She regretted telling them that she hated them, in her third year, when they had lied and said they were going on a second honey-moon. She regretted, most of all, not telling them how much she loved them.

Lily ran out of Dumbledore's office, through the halls, she didn't even have a clue as to where she was going, but all she knew was that if she ran, if she ran as fast as her legs could carry her, maybe she'd forget everything Dumbledore had just told her. Maybe she could run forward in time, past the pain she felt now. Or maybe, she could run back in time, to stop her parents from being killed.

—

James looked up from his book as he heard voices, immediately expecting to see Lily returning — but it wasn't her. Megan and Sirius sat down in the seats that were surrounding the table, and James couldn't hide his disappointment from his ever so observant friend.

"Gee, lovely to see you too," Sirius replied sarcastically. "Oi! Where's Evans?" He asked suddenly, and James didn't say anything.

"James?" Megan prodded gently.

"Dumbledore came. He said there... there was something personal he had to talk to her about. Insisted it wasn't prophecy-related. But... that was when we first got here. She's been gone ever since. I... I'm sure she should have been back by now. I tried to... to write down some notes, from these books," James added suddenly, "But... I can't write anymore until I find out what's taking her so long. You two... please, stay here and go through these, and I'll be back soon." With that, James stood up and left the library — Sirius groaned looking at the huge pile of books, and Megan tossed a quill at him.

"Start writing," She told him crossly. He glared at her and stuck his tongue out, which she immediately reached to draw on. Sirius got up and walked over to the other side of the table, so that he was far enough from her that he could bug her without suffering any real kind of consequences — at least, unless she decided to use her wand, which Madam Pince would kill her for.

They looked through the books silently, trying to find anything relevant to the prophecy or places the Gryffindor founder may have went. Megan closed her book and set it back on the table, and began staring at Sirius. He tried to ignore it, but after awhile it got quite annoying and he looked up.

"What?" he asked her.

"Sirius... do you think Lily's okay?" Megan asked quietly, looking towards the door. It had been awhile now since James had left, and neither he nor Lily had since returned. Sirius seemed to notice that she was concerned about her friend, and forced a smile.

"Sure she is! I bet she just remembered to add something to that Essay Binns set for us — or got some brilliant brainwave on the way back from Dumbledore's Office of where to look for the Prophecy. I'm sure she's alright." Sirius added. Megan seemed somewhat comforted by this, though she still continued casting glances at the empty hallway outside of the library.

"You're... you're probably right. I... thank-you, Sirius." Megan said finally. Sirius looked up at her, surprised, and opened his mouth to say something — say that he wasn't trying to make her feel better, just trying to get her to stop moping so she'd actually read the books so he didn't have to do it alone — but he shut it instead.

"You're welcome." He replied after a few moments, and Megan looked at him oddly. Sirius pretended not to notice this and opened the book he had been reading again. Never, in his life, had he done so much reading — it seemed unfair that he had to start now, in his last year at Hogwarts.

"Hey, wait a second!" Sirius exclaimed, and Megan looked up startled.

"What is it?" She asked, surprised at his sudden outburst.

"Why did Pete get to go home for the holidays!?" Sirius demanded. Megan groaned and felt like smacking herself for thinking he was even remotely different.

"Because in all reality he wouldn't have been much help anyway, and because his parents refused to let him stay. I thought he told all of that to you?" Megan asked.

"Yeah, but... I just realized he wasn't here." Megan gaped at him.

"He's one of your best friends," She replied coolly. "How do you not notice that sooner?"

"It's not like that," Sirirus replied, his voice suddenly softer. "It's strange. He hasn't been around as much, and when he is... he's been acting him weird. Before everyone left for the holidays, he even skipped dinner." Megan stared at him — Peter Pettigrew, skip a meal?

"Oh." Was all she could say.

—

"Lily!"

Lily heard James calling her, but she knew she had to try to ignore him. She didn't want to — she felt terrible even considering it — but she couldn't let him, or anyone else, see her this way. The little bit of makeup she wore smudged, down her face. Her nose was a bright red, her eyes bloodshot and puffy. No, she definitely did not want to be seen like this. She started to run again, but James caught up to her and grabbed her arm.

"Let me go!" Lily shouted, trying to pull away. James seemed surprised, and loosened his grip, but suddenly grabbed her with his other arm. Lily struggled to get away from him, shouting at him, trying to hit him, until finally she broke down and started to cry. She fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands, just crying. James knelt down next to her, shocked, and put an arm around her. He let her cry for awhile, before putting his hand on hers.

"Lily... what's wrong?" He asked finally. Lily didn't say anything at first, just stared straight ahead, seemingly at nothing. She seemed to be lost in her thoughts. Finally, she threw her arms around James who immediately helped her to her feet and hugged her back.

"My... Dumbledore, he said... the Dark Lord... he..." Lily stopped and started crying again, and James held her, whispering the only soothing words he could think of without knowing what had happened. Finally, Lily took a deep breath and tried again. "He killed my parents," She managed, before bursting into tears again.

James stood there, shocked. Her parents — her parents were dead? But... he couldn't even let it register, and all he could think was how he'd feel if it were his parents instead. He remembered, briefly, the few things he had learned about Lily's sister Petunia. The most freshest memory in his mind was when she had sent that picture to Lily, intentionally to emotionally torture her. _She's the only direct family Lily has at home now... _James realized, feeling rather nauseated at the thought.

"I'm sorry Lily," He whispered.

—

"So, James went off to find her?" Remus asked. He and Ali had just arrived to the library where they were all supposed to meet, where he saw James and Lily were absent. Megan nodded.

"Yeah, he insisted. I... he sounded really worried. And that makes me worried. Do you think she's alright?" Megan asked.

"Ahh, they're probably just off snogging in the broom closet —" Sirius told her, and she couldn't help but smile a little.

"Gross as this will sound — I hope so. But... you'd think they'd have said something, or come back and made up an excuse to leave, or..." Megan stopped when she saw James come into the library, alone. "James! Where's Lily? Did you find her?" She asked quickly, getting up out of her seat and rushing over to him.

"She... she's in the Common Room, she's going to lie down," James replied after awhile, not looking at any of them.

"Oh, is she sick?" Sirius asked him, noticing his friend was seeming a little odd.

"She's... you're going to find out eventually anyway," James replied suddenly. "Dumbledore... he had wanted to talk to her about her parents. They've been murdered," The other's seemed shocked, and Ali gasped.

"Murdered? They're... they're dead? But — who would do this?" Ali sank into the chair she was in even further, and Remus, shy though he was, put his hand on hers reassuringly. Even Sirius seemed to not believe this.

"Who do you think?" Sirius replied, bitter suddenly. "The Dark Lord. You-know-who, he-who-must-not-be-named." The others were surprised at the bitterness he seemed to show specifically — though none of them particularly cared for the cold-blooded murderer, Sirius spoke as though he had some personal grudge. After a few moments silence, James spoke up.

"She asked me if I'd tell you and Megan to just kind of... leave her alone, for awhile. In the dormitory, I mean. Like if she's awake and just sitting there, she wanted left alone." James told them, and they nodded understandingly.

"Of course," They murmured. The reality of everything was setting in. The Dark Lord wasn't someone who was just a bad, horrible and evil person abusing their magic. He wasn't just another person that would be talked about for centuries and shipped off to Azkaban. He was worse than Grindelwald — and he had been the biggest threat to the Wizarding World for ages. This Voldemort was not just a threat — he was like a sickness. Speak his name, and fear was instantly placed in the hearts of those who heard it. These killings were no longer something that just happened to other people — it was hitting closer and closer home. Lily was the first to be affected in their number... who would be next?

"Do you think this is what the prophecy has to do with?" Remus asked, sitting up in his chair. "This..." he took a deep breath. "Dark Lord," he replied instead. He had tried to say the name — after all, it was only a name — but he saw the fear instantly placed on Ali's face sitting next to him and stopped himself.

"It must. And we have to find it — there's no other choice. We're going to find it, tonight." James replied firmly, a new determination consuming him entirely. This was no longer a joke — it never had been before, but the seriousness of everything seemed so much clearer now. Even school seemed to pale in comparison for what was and wasn't important in his life. The prophecy, Lily, his friends... they were important to him, they were the things he would be focusing on. Everything else didn't matter anymore.

"We can't just find it like that, James!" Remus exclaimed. "Look, I know we all feel bad for Lily, and I know that we're all frustrated and sad right now, but that doesn't change the fact that we have no idea where this prophecy could be."

"I think we do, Remus." James replied slowly, and everyone turned to look at him, shocked. "I know Lily said she didn't want to be bothered, but we have to get her for this. We're going to talk to Dumbledore — and he's not keeping anything from us anymore. We're going to make him tell us everything — everything! — he knows. Sirius, you said ages ago when he told us about this prophecy, that you saw him put his wand to his head and a silvery like substance came out of his head into the end of his wand — I just realized what that meant! He was bottling his memories!"

"Of course!" Remus breathed. "But what was so important then — was he bottling the memory of talking to us, or something else?"

"I don't know, but we're going to make him tell us. And if he refuses... there's no other way. We'll have to break into his office when he leaves."

**A/N:** So finally things are becoming a little more clearer, next chapter or the one after that (depending on how it progresses) should hold the prophecy and the discovery of the prophecy. Again so sorry for the long, long, wait in an update. There's no reason for it, none that is at all acceptable, so I hope you'll R&R and tune in to the next chapter.


	15. Hearing The Prophecy

**A/N:** Well I said I'd update again and I am. So, here's the next chapter which should be a little more exciting for everyone. You'll see why hehe. R&R please, I love to hear your comments.

**Disclaimer:** Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, not me.

**A Marauder's Tale**

_EilayAdnayVolieay_

Chapter Fifteen: The Prophecy

The others stared back at James, mouths wide open. Break... into Dumbledore's office? It was unheard of, it was insane! The Headmaster trusted them, he was kind to them, and he had let them search his office! What else could there be to find, that they hadn't already had a chance to look at?

But the new discovery made them wonder — Dumbledore was preserving his memories. Though they had no doubt that it was important regardless of the prophecy, it was suspicious. Sirius knew what he had seen — Dumbledore, shocked that Sirius might have noticed. Almost... worried. And what was there to be worried about?

"We can't just break into the Headmaster's office, James," Remus argued. "I mean, think about what you're saying! We can't betray his trust like that." James didn't say anything, and he didn't look at any of the people that were staring at him. They didn't understand what this suddenly meant — the harsh, cruel reality of it all. The knowledge that maybe they could put a stop to it.

"And think about it, mate," Sirius butted in, "What reason would he have for keeping the information about the prophecy from us for? And we don't even know what the prophecy is about! We're all concerned about Lily," He added, "And I know that's what's... triggered this. But believe me, the Dark Lord, he... this prophecy might have absolutely nothing to do with him." Sirius told him finally. James looked up and the expression on his face was unreadable — he didn't seem angry or upset, yet there was something there.

"I know that. Okay!? I know it might have nothing to do with him, but what if it did? What if we had the power to... to stop all of this!? And even if we don't, this is big. Huge. And I know we all trust Dumbledore — but he seems to know so much about this prophecy, why is it that he knows that much, knows it's about us — without knowing what it says? Do you honestly believe that? In order to have any idea what it's about, or who it involves, someone knows what it says. And if it's not Dumbledore, we're going to find out who. And even if he doesn't know the prophecy, I'm sure he knows of someone who does. We have searched this school, completely! We have found _nothing._"

"James, come on, we can't talk to you when you're like —" Megan started, but James turned and glared at her.

"Then don't! I'm not making any of you come with me."

"Hey, don't take your anger out on her." Sirius told James, moving in front of his view. "Whatever's got you so... so bloody pissed off, get over it. We're all in this. _Together._ We make the decisions James — _together._" James was a little taken aback at this new attitude Sirius had. _I guess maybe I've been... a prat, _James thought to himself.

"I never thought I'd say this, but I agree with Sirius. James... I hate to do this, I know that — I mean Lily needs time alone. But I think we need her with us — if you really want to confront Dumbledore, we should give her the chance to come with us. If she ultimately decides she wants to stay in the Common Room, then we'll go without her. But this is important." Remus told him. James didn't seem to like the idea, but finally nodded, giving in.

"Okay." He said finally. "Let's go talk to Lily first."

—

Lily tossed and turned in her sleep as she tried to block the dreams that kept coming to her. Though she had no idea exactly when it had happened, or where it had happened, she had one small grain of truth — her parents were dead. They had been murdered. And no matter how hard she tried to sleep, she felt the same loss — the same empty void within herself. She hadn't gotten to say goodbye to them — they were gone, and she'd never see them again.

Lily sat up in her bed, breathing heavy as she awoke from another bad dream. She heard the sound of whispering outside the girls dorm and frowned. She stood up and walked over to the door.

"Ow! Ali that was my _foot,"_ Lily smiled slightly as she heard Megan's voice on the other side of the door. She opened it and they both jumped from outside of the girls dorm, startled.

"Lily!" Megan breathed, and walked over to hug her. "I'm — we're — all of us..." Megan just shook her head sadly and stopped. It didn't matter if they were sorry — and Lily knew.

"I know," Lily replied sadly.

"Lily, we needed to talk to you. James — he's going strange, and he wants to confront Dumbledore about the prophecy." Megan told her, pushing past her gently into the dormitory. Lily stared back at her blankly.

"...confront Dumbledore? But why? What does Dumbledore...?" Lily trailed off.

"James... he has this... he thinks — well, he thinks Dumbledore knows what the prophecy says. James says there's not enough time to keep looking around the school blindly, says that... he's going to get Dumbledore to tell us everything. No matter what the consequences. Oh, I don't think he's himself!" Ali cried out. "It's kind of scary actually, I've never seen him so... determined and frightening. We figured out that Dumbledore is preserving his memories — that's what Sirius saw, that night when Dumbledore told us about the prophecy!" Ali added.

"Do... do you guys think that Dumbledore's hiding something from us?" Lily asked softly, returning to her bed and sitting on the edge of it. The thought that Dumbledore could be keeping anything from them, it was just... something she didn't want to think about. Something she shouldn't have to think about. It wasn't right, it was... Dumbledore... Lily shook her head. She was getting a headache from all of this.

"I don't know, Lily." Megan replied truthfully. "I mean, I realize James is all fired up because he's concerned about you, and because he has this newfound hatred for You-Know-Who, but... some of what he says makes sense. How is it that anyone could possibly be sure that the prophecy involved us, when... well nobody supposedly knows what it says. That's why we had to find it, right? But if nobody has read it then they couldn't possibly know it was about us. Unless..."

"Unless Dumbledore really does know more than what he's telling us." Lily finished for her. "So why are you telling me all of this? Do we have some kind of plan, some sort of...?"

"James wants to confront Dumbledore now — not later, or after Christmas holidays, but right now. We all agree that you should have the right to come with us — we can't help that Peter's not here, since he's gone home for the holidays, but... well, you are here. And I know... I know you're upset right now. So if you don't want to come with us, we'll understand. But —"

"I want to go," Lily replied softly, so softly that her two friends she could tell were not even sure they had heard right. "I have to go," Lily added, more loudly. "I'm as much a part of this as you guys are. And... as for my... emotional state... I'll deal with it. Come on," Lily said finally, getting up. "Let's get this over with. This confrontation that James wants us to do. Do we have any idea how we're going to go at this? Please tell me James isn't intending to just barge in there and start shouting at him?" Lily begged. Ali and Megan exchanged a look, and Lily immediately knew that neither of them could promise that. She was sure that they didn't even know.

Lily jumped up and rushed down the stairs, and saw the guys sitting in front of the fireplace, talking quietly. At the sight of Lily, they instantly fell silent. She felt their gazes on her and she knew immediately what they were thinking — how would she react, firstly, to argue with the Headmaster of the school? They could get in a lot of trouble. But more than anything, Lily knew they were thinking of her parents. Of how she must feel. Wondering blindly, what on earth they could say to her to make it better.

_Well, I have a newsflash for them, _Lily thought to herself, somewhat bitterly._ There's nothing they can say to make it better._

"James, can I talk to you? Alone, please?" Lily added, seeing him not get up. He nodded, and walked out of the Common Room. The Fat Lady swung open her portrait and closed behind them.

"What is it, Lily?" James asked, his expression softening for the first time since he had gotten the idea of confronting Dumbledore. Lily didn't look at him for awhile.

"I know... I know you want to do this. But what exactly do you plan on doing? Just... running in there making demands?" Lily asked him. James opened his mouth to object, but quickly shut it. Lily had a feeling that was exactly what he had intended on doing. She shook her head sadly. "James, we need to be really careful with this. Dumbledore, he's like... our informer. And even if he's keeping information from us, we... we need to be careful. What if we can't find out what we need and he's our only hope?" Lily added.

"Like now?" James asked her, and Lily didn't say anything.

"What's... gotten into you?" Lily asked him quietly. James went to glare at her and then quickly seemed to catch himself. What was he doing? What was his... problem? _I don't know what's gotten into me, Lily... _James thought. _I just... I'm worried. Worried that... we're not the right ones for this. Worried that whatever it is, we can't handle. _James shook his head and looked up at Lily who was staring back at him, seeming very concerned. He leaned in and kissed her on the cheek.

"I'm sorry," He whispered in her ear. "I guess I'm just worried." He had wanted to kiss her mouth, wanted to wrap his arms around her, but he held himself back. She was mourning. And he had just been acting a little strangely. She probably would prefer if he didn't suddenly try to make out with her or anything like that. By the way Lily looked at him, he knew he had done the right thing.

"Let's... go get the others, and go see Dumbledore. Tell him... tell him we need to know everything he knows, and how he knows the prophecy involves us." Lily said after awhile. James grabbed her hand gently and guided her back into the Common Room.

The others looked up as they entered, and Sirius winked at James. James, however, ignored this.

"Let's go guys."

—

When they entered Dumbledore's office, he was nowhere to be seen. They looked at each other, somewhat worried. Though they had discussed the possibility of actually breaking in, none of them had expected it to be this time. They had wanted to talk to Dumbledore, try to get him to tell them more — they were positive that he had to have more knowledge of this than he was letting on.

"What do we do now?" Ali asked, looking around. She seemed worried — James thought it must have been because she was uncomfortable at the thought of snooping around the Headmaster's office without his permission. James thought for a moment... though this seemed like a perfect opportunity to search the Headmaster's office, he could see no reason why they should without talking to the Headmaster first. Perhaps, once he had realized they knew that he was holding something back, he would tell them. And he deserved that chance before they went through his things.

"We wait," James said suddenly, and both Ali and Lily seemed relieved at this. Remus, however, looked completely baffled.

"But you said you wanted to investigate his office... why change your mind?" Remus asked.

"I said if he didn't tell us what we needed to know, we'd investigate his office. He hasn't been given a chance to tell us — or at least, since we determined he knew more than he was letting on." James informed him. Sirius sat on a little couch off to the side of Dumbledore's office and stretched out.

"You know," He replied, stifling a yawn behind his hand. "I don't get why you think sneaking in his office later would help us come up with anything anyway. He already let us search here, you know." Sirius saw Megan roll her eyes as he leaned back in the couch and he smirked at her.

"Because," James said, a little impatiently, "We asked him then — in advance. Meaning he would have had the time to take anything important or anything he didn't want us to find, out of here. Anyway, let's stop talking about it in case he comes back. I don't want him overhearing us." James added. He saw Lily wander over towards Dumbledore's phoenix, and he walked over to her.

Megan joined Sirius on the couch and looked at him. He noticed this but ignored it. Finally when it became somewhat unbearable, he turned his gaze and met hers.

"What?" He asked tiredly. Megan shook her head.

"N-nothing..." She muttered, looking away. Sirius cocked an eyebrow up at this. She seemed as if she was almost embarrassed to have been caught looking at him, or called on it. But he figured that must have been his imagination — after all, there was no logical reason she would be embarrassed. Well, unless she had joined the majority of the female population and suddenly liked him. But that seemed very unlikely, even to Sirius. _She hates me, _Sirius thought, and he was surprised at the strange feeling he got from that.

"So, uh..." Sirius trailed off as she looked back at him surprised. He scratched the back of his head. "Erm... Christmas... looking forward to it?" Sirius asked. Megan stared back at him blankly.

"Um, yeah, I... I guess..." She replied confused. "I'll... miss being at home for the holidays," She added, her words seeming to flow more freely now. "How about you?" She asked.

"Looking forward to Christmas? Definitely. Miss being home? Far from it..." Sirius said, trailing off.

"What? Why not?" She asked him, startled. He shrugged.

"Technically I haven't been at home for the holidays — well, this would be the second year. Last year I ran away from home — I've been staying with the Potters ever since." Sirius confided. Megan was shocked. Who would have thought that the popular trouble maker at Hogwarts would have reason to run away from home and not go back?

"If... you don't mind my asking... why did you run away?" Megan asked him softly.

"Because my parents... my family is pureblood, right, and my parents are very proud of that. Proud of our bloodline. But it... it goes beyond that. It's not just pride, it's like... well, they're all for You-Know-Who and his goals of purifying the Wizarding World and ridding it of Muggles and Muggle-borns alike." Sirius said bitterly, seeming disgusted at this. "My brother, he... he's obsessive. Regulus, you know — in Slytherin? Reckon he wants to be a Death Eater, the way he goes on... anyway, I was the odd one in the family. The pureblood from a family always in Slytherin, put into Gryffindor? With friends she hated? I got tired of listening to them one day and just left. James' parents were really nice and let me stay with them, and I have, ever since."

Megan sat there quietly, not saying a word. The knowledge that Sirius' life wasn't as perfect as she had always believed it to be was a bit of a shock for her. Even more hard to hear the way he talked about his parents — and the way his parents were. She couldn't imagine what it would be like for her if she had learned that her parents supported someone so set on killing innocent people — she didn't want to.

"I'm... really sorry to hear that," Megan replied finally, and Sirius nodded, not saying anything. "I... and... thank-you for trusting me with that," She added. "I never expected you to have such a... well..." She didn't say anything. She noticed that everyone else seemed to be off on their own in pairs — James and Lily, Ali with Remus sitting in front of the Headmaster's desk. None of them were paying any attention to what anyone else was doing, so Megan turned back to Sirius. He looked somewhat depressed suddenly after talking about his family. Megan slid over on the couch so she was right next to him, and he looked at her and opened his mouth to say something, and that was when she leaned in and kissed him.

Sirius was surprised but he by no means pushed her away, and when she pulled back he looked almost disappointed. She was suddenly refusing to meet his gaze, and Sirius couldn't help but be amused at that.

"I — if you tell — just don't..." Megan stopped when she saw how amused Sirius was suddenly looking. She glared at him. "Ohh, just keep quiet about that." She told him. Sirius grinned.

"Whatever you say..." He told her, still grinning.

"And what do I owe the pleasure of your presence in my office at this time?" A voice came, and all of the teenagers jumped, startled. Dumbledore walked up the three little steps in his office, and moved behind his desk before taking a seat. They all exchanged worried glances, before James sat in a seat in front of Dumbledore's desk

"Professor..." James began, as the others took a seat in the chairs Dumbledore brought over with a flick of his wand, "It's about the prophecy. I..." He took a deep breath, trying not to let any anger come through as he attempted to say this properly. "We think you might be trying to — protect us — even still. By not... telling us everything." James looked at the others, and saw them nod encouragingly or smile faintly.

"I know... that... you admitted to making a mistake in not telling us sooner. I know that — we all do. But Professor Dumbledore... before you object, you have to look at this from our point of view. You say that you, nor anyone else, knows anything of what this prophecy says — if that's the case, how do you know it involves us? How, without a single doubt, can you be so positive? Please, if there's anything you aren't telling us, we deserve to know. It's not... it's not just about fulfilling this prophecy anymore. It's not just something we feel as if we have to do because we're told we have to. We have to do this because we want to — and we want to help."

Dumbledore sat there in his seat, not speaking, never taking his eyes off of them. He gazed at each of them in turn through his half-moon spectacles, before nodding.

"You are, I am afraid, very correct. Against my better judgement, I have kept several important details from you. The fact that... though we have no idea where the actual prophecy is hidden, we have a very important clue — a memory. Or at least, a memory of a story passed down... generations in fact from the time it was told." Dumbledore stood up and opened a cabinet behind his desk. In it stood what appeared to be a large bowl filled with liquid, and Dumbledore pulled a vial out of his robe pocket. He poured it into the bowl before turning to them.

"This is a pensieve. It shows you the memories, the thoughts, of the person whose memories are placed inside of this bowl. A descendant of Godric Gryffindor knew of the prophecy — but the problem was the promise that was made all those years ago. Godric Gryffindor would tell the next in line, the next descendant, all they would need to know about finding the prophecy — it was up to that descendant to use those clues to actually find it. They would learn of it, they would see if the people the prophecy was about had... arrived... yet." Dumbledore told them.

"But sir, what does the prophecy say?" Remus asked him.

"'The chosen seven are the only ones who can defeat the one who endangers them the most. Two lost forever, one betraying those who trust — the only light on the path to the darkest times that follow is the birth of a child whose life depends on love's sacrifice.'" Dumbledore recited. "In other words, to fulfill the prophecy, two of you must die — one of you must betray the rest — and a child must be born. It's life must be spared. This is _very important!_" Dumbledore added, raising his voice. "This is the prophecy — not very informative, I'm sure you will notice." Dumbledore walked towards the door of his office, and turned around to face them once again.

"Go into the Pensieve... into my memory. You will learn all there is to learn about this prophecy — you know now what it says. Enter my memory, and I hope that when you leave it, you will be better informed than you were before. More aware of the true dangers — of the reason why two of you must die. Of the reason why two others must sacrifice themselves for a child — why two must live on, and why one of you must betray the rest. There is so much more to this than I believe even I will understand, though I have my guesses, which are normally rather correct. Please — go now. I will be back at my office in exactly two hours. By then, you will know all that I know. You will see why I have protected you. You will know, if not who, then what, you are up against. This is only the beginning of a very long battle. You must succeed. If you don't..." Dumbledore said nothing else, but smiled gravely. "Good luck."

**A/N:** Well there you have it — the prophecy. Now, it's not very informative — to some extent. Because the whole point of this story is 'fulfilling' this prophecy, which seems so much like just living basically and by chance, these things happening. But what it really signifies (which will be explained in much better detail in the next few chapters) is the dangers they're going to face because though they're just learning of this prophecy, those who are a danger to them are not — they know it. They know who it involves. They know ultimately what it means, to a brief extent. Which puts our characters into more danger than they realize. This will be portrayed a lot within the next few chapters. Next chapter — 'Dumbledore's Memory'. R&R.


End file.
